


Dual Marks

by beatlechicksteph



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-28 17:52:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 46,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3864166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beatlechicksteph/pseuds/beatlechicksteph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unwilling to accept that there is nothing to do for his brother, Sam Winchester continues to research ways to get rid of the Mark of Cain. When he stumbles upon an unlikely lead in Boston, The Winchesters, along with Castiel, meet a mysterious bookstore owner who will lead them into a world they are not ready for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

AN: I’m back! This is not part of the Nightmares into Dreams universe, I just want to point that out now. This story takes place during the current Supernatural season, and everything up to the most recent episode is pretty much canon. However, I will warn you, once new episodes start airing again, it will not be canon anymore. And it should go without saying that everything in the Harry Potter Universe is canon, minus the epilogue. Alright, I’m done yammering. On with the story. This is just a short introductory chapter. I don’t have a beta this time around, all mistakes are my own.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything recognizable.  
Sam sighed, tossing another book aside, resting his face in his hands.

"Dead end?" a voice asked from behind him.

Sam turned around as Castiel made his way down the stairs to the table.

"You would think that with a bunker full of books and information there would be something about the damn mark."

Castiel pulled out the chair across from Sam, sitting down. "How is he?"

"The same. He has days where he's the old Dean, but just as quickly he can turn dark. We need to find a way to get that mark off of him, Cas."

"I've been asking around, but no one's talking to me. I think they've lost their trust in me since the Metatron incident. After we snuck him out, and Dean almost killed him, the angels have started avoiding me whenever I go up to heaven," Cas said. "What about the internet? Have you found anything promising on there?"

Sam shrugged. "I actually haven't really done any extensive research online. I figured the men of letters would actually have better resources. When I search for "Mark of Cain" all the hits I come up with are Biblical."

Cas leaned forward in his chair, folding his arms on the table. "What if you didn't search for the Mark of Cain, specifically. What if you searched for cursed brands or cursed marks, or something more general like that."

Sam sighed, reaching over to grab the laptop. "It's worth a shot. I just don't know what else to do. Our largest lead is dead, and Dean's starting to just give up hope. And I'm starting to wonder if he's right."

Cas shook his head. "He's not. We've got to keep trying. Use that Google thing and see if we can at least find a new lead."

Sam opened up the browser and began searching for every variation of marks on people, or marks that could control people. 

"Huh," he said, after a while.

Cas perked up from where his spot across the table where he was flipping through one of the books Sam had discarded earlier. "Did you find something?"

"Maybe," Sam said, not looking up from his screen. "I've somehow found my way to this message board, that isn't even on any search engines. I don't even know exactly how I stumbled upon it. But there is this phrase, 'Dark Mark' that keeps popping up throughout."

Cas set the book aside and moved around the table to sit by Sam. "Dark Mark? This sounds promising."

Sam turned the screen so Cas could get a better look. "Look at this," he clicked on a thread. "These people are discussing whether people who "bear the Dark Mark" should be able to get paroled from Azkaban, whatever that is. And they go on to discuss whether it should even matter if they have the Dark Mark, since it has faded and they are no longer controlled by it."

"That seems very promising. Where can we find these people and question them about this Dark Mark? Because if there are people who were controlled by a mark, and they no longer are, they might be able to tell us something to help with the Mark of Cain."

Sam turned back to the computer, and clicked around some more. "The U.K." he finally said. 

Cas exhaled. "All of them?"

Sam nodded. "This board is run out of London," he said. "Maybe I could post a new thread and ask for help? Maybe they could tell me something?"

Cas shrugged. "It may be worth a try, but I don't like the knowledge that Dean bears the mark to be on the internet."

Sam nodded. "You're right. So we're basically at a standstill again, because we can't go to London, it's just not--" he cut off as something caught his eye. He clicked the link and read it aloud. "Hermione Granger leaves London and starts new life as a bookshop owner in Boston amid scandal."

"What does that mean?" Cas asked. 

"That one of these people is living here, in the United States. I guess this wasn't a dead end after all."

"This is very promising. When do we leave?"

Sam shook his head, "As soon as possible, I guess? Boston is a very large city, I think we need to figure out which book store she runs before we drive out there."

Sam opened up another tab on his browser.

"What are you doing?" Cas asked.

"Searching for all of the bookstores in Boston and looking for one that opened around the time this article was published, which was about five years ago."

"You can do that?"

Sam nodded. "Yep, and here it is, Old Treasures. It looks like it's an antique bookshop that specializes in rare finds."

"Excellent. When do you want to leave?"

"Leave where?" Dean spoke up from behind them.

Sam and Cas turned around. Dean was leaning against the doorway that led towards the bedrooms.

"Um--" Sam started.

"We're going to Boston to follow a lead about the mark," Cas answered without hesitation.

Dean focused his gaze on Sam. "Really, Sammy? I thought I had made it clear that I'm just going to accept my fate. Just wait it out until I can't fight the mark off anymore. And then you need to do what needs to be done, before I start killing everyone I love."

"Yeah, and Cas and I decided that's a bullshit idea, and that we weren't ready to give up on you yet," Sam countered.

Dean sighed. "Look, we learned when I confronted Cain that this was my fate. There's nothing that can be done. If Cain couldn't do anything about the Mark, then what makes you think that whatever is in Boston will be able to?"

"Because it's been done before," Sam replied.

Dean shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't think I've heard you right. Someone else managed to get rid of the Mark of Cain? Old Crazypants made it seem like I was the only person, besides him, to have the Mark."

Cas shook his head. "We're pretty sure that the mark that we found talk of on the internet is not the Mark of Cain, but it sounds similar. Sam found people talking about how other people were controlled by a mark, but they aren't anymore. Most of the cases occurred in London, however, we found someone from this elusive group living in Boston."

Dean walked over, taking a seat at the table with the other two men. "So, there's someone here, in the United States, who knows about cursed marks and how to get rid of them."

Sam nodded. "It looks that way."

Dean shrugged, "What the hell, we've already faced Cain, and lived. Crowley is around somewhere pissed at us, what would it hurt to just go to Boston and check out this lead."

Sam and Cas shared a look of surprise. 

"Really?" Sam asked. "You're wanting to go?"

Dean shrugged. "Sure. I mean, this person can't exactly help out with a cursed mark, if said cursed mark isn't right there, could they?"

"I guess you're right," Sam said. "You're sure you're going to be fine? This won't be too much?"

Dean shrugged. "Sammy, I'm tired of being couped up in this bunker. I need to get out, and I need to work a case. Since we don't have a case right now, this is the best that I've got."

"And you're sure you'll be able to control yourself?"

Dean shook his head. "No, I'm not, which is why you two are going to need to be extra vigilant, and sure that if I got off the deep end, you're willing to do what is necessary."

Cas and Sam exchanged a worried look, before nodding.

"Whatever you need, Dean, we're willing to do it," Cas replied. 

"Yeah, whatever you need," Sam reluctantly agreed.

Dean smiled. "Great. Now, let's hit the road. Don't want to waste any time. I'll drive."

So, what’d you think? Please take the time to review. Unlike Nightmare, this story isn’t anywhere close to complete, so there may be some time between updates, but I’m going to try and update every week/week and a half. I am also writing another fic at the same time, because I’m crazy.


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione hummed to herself as she got herself ready for the day. She moved through her small apartment between her bathroom and her living room, trying to tame her hair on her way. As she moved toward the kitchen, in order to grab something quick for breakfast, she deftly stepped over the pile of toys her godsons, James and Albus, had left on the floor after visiting over the weekend.

When she had moved to Boston almost five years ago, she was really worried that her relationship with Harry and Ginny would suffer and she wouldn't have a chance to get to know James, who was just a baby at the time. Harry, however, reminded her that she was a witch and that magic was a marvelous thing, and once her floo was connected with the network, she was able to see the Potters whenever she wanted. She even had the privilege of keeping the boys overnight some weekends, giving the Potters, and the Weasleys, a break.

As she made her tea, she pulled out her wand, and with a swish and a flick, the toys went back into the cupboard they were stored in while the boys were at home. She smiled to herself, remembering the chaos of the weekend, hosting a five year old and a three year old. Boy were those two a handful, she did not envy Harry one bit. And with another on the way, she crossed her fingers that they would be blessed with a girl, because if they had another boy with the energy of the two they already had, she was sure they would be counting down the days until they started to ship them off to Hogwarts.

As she ate her breakfast and sipped her tea, Hermione skimmed through the issue of the Daily Prophet that Harry brought with him when he came to pick up the boys. He always brought her a copy when he came to visit so she could stay on top of the news back home. In addition to all the typical Ministry news and gossip, there, on the bottom left of the second page there was still a column written by the detestable Rita Skeeter, speculating on her whereabouts. When she moved five years ago, she made sure that no one other than her close friends and family knew where she was. After twelve years of being constantly in the spotlight and being followed by the magical version of the paparazzi, she had had enough. She couldn't live a normal life, and she definitely couldn't move on with her life if she stayed anywhere near London. After much consideration, and many pro and con lists, she decided to move to Boston. She opened up her shop, Old Treasures, which specialized in both Muggle and Magical texts, and has enjoyed the relative anonymity that came with living in a new place.

She shut the paper, finished the last of her tea in a one big gulp, and grabbed her bag off the counter before apparating into work.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Hermione sat at the counter reading through a new book that she had just acquired when the bell on the door rang, signaling that someone was entering the store. She set the book aside and looked up to see three men entering the store. She quirked her eyebrow as she took in the men. They were not the sort who would typically frequent her store. Usually she had people who were obviously magical trying to pass as Muggle, old people, hipsters, and then the obvious antique hunters who came in with lists of what they were looking for. What made these men stand out in particular was not just the way they were dressed, one in multiple layers of shirts, one in a beige trench coat, one in a flannel button down. No, what made these men stand out was the fact that they looked completely and utterly out of place from the moment that they walked into the store. Like they didn't understand why they were in an antique bookstore to begin with. 

She pushed herself out of her chair, and leaned forward on the counter. "Can I help you?"

They all looked at each other, before the tallest one, the one in the flannel shirt, "Um, yeah, we were looking to speak to the owner of the store."

Hermione straightened. "That would be me."

The three men turned back to each other, and Hermione watched as they pantomimed to each other. She couldn't quite understand what was going on, but it seemed that they were trying to figure out who was going to talk.

"Is there something I could help you find?" she asked. "Are you looking for a particular text?"

Finally, the men stopped gesturing at each other, and the tall one spoke up again. "Yes, actually. We were hoping that you would be able to tell us a little about," he paused. When he spoke again, he was quieter. "The Dark Mark."

Hermione took a step back, eyes wide. She was certain these men were muggles. How on earth did they know anything about the Dark Mark? "I don't know what you're talking about," Hermione answered after she had recovered, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

"Really? Because according to these message boards we found, it was implied that you do," Multiple Layered Shirts said.

Hermione shook her head. "Message boards? What message boards?" she asked, confused.

Tall and Flannel gestured to the computer on her counter. "Is that hooked up to the Internet?" he asked.

She nodded.

"May I?" he gestured toward the machine.

She nodded again.

He moved over behind the counter and Hermione moved out of his way, she looked over at the other two men. Multiple Layers was looking around the shop, but it was Trench Coat that made her do a double take. He had been absolutely silent since they came into the shop, and he was looking at her, with his eyes narrowed, and his head tilted to one side, as if he were trying to solve a puzzle, and that puzzle was her. She shook her head, and turned her attention back to the computer. She watched as Flannel went straight to a website and then backed out of the way so that she could see what he had pulled up on the screen. 

"What the fuck," she muttered under her breath as she took in the site. It was message boards run by muggleborn witches and wizards from Britain. She took the mouse and scrolled through the threads and she just kept shaking her head. While the average Muggle really wouldn't have understood most of what was being discussed, it was still a huge violation of the Statute of Secrecy. She scrolled until she found the name of the admin of the site. Dean Thomas. She should have known. She was going to have to floo call Harry later and discuss this with him. They needed to shut these boards down.

She tried to find out where on the boards these men found out that she had anything to do with the Dark Mark, but she couldn't find anything. The only thing she saw that had anything to do with her was a thread that discussed Rita Skeeter's Daily Prophet articles about her. She looked up at the men.

"I don't understand. How did this website lead you to me?" she asked.

Tall and Flannel reached over and a few clicks later, the headline, "Hermione Granger leaves London and starts new life as a bookshop owner in Boston amid scandal," popped up in big bold letters. Of course, it was link to a thread about Hermione when she left the country, and an article written by none other than Rita Skeeter.

She sighed and looked up at them. "This is nice and all, but I just don't understand why you think I have anything to do with this ‘Dark Mark,’" she said, hoping that if she denied it enough, it would deter them and they would leave.

"Because, you belong to this mysterious group that runs this message board," Tall and Flannel said. 

"Look, I'm really sorry, but--" Hermione started.

"Look, lady," Multiple Layers snapped. "I'm tired of dancing around this. We know that you know something, so stop denying it. The website says that you can stop cursed marks from controlling the person who is marked. We need you to tell us how."

"Why on Earth would you need to know something like that?" she asked, giving up the pretense of being clueless.

Multiple Layers looked her in the eye as he rolled up the right sleeves of his shirts. There, on the inside of his arm, was a raised mark that looked almost like it could be a rune.

"Because I have a cursed mark that sounds an awful like this Dark Mark we read about on your crazy site," he replied. 

Hermione stared at the mark. Every instinct in her body was screaming to stay as far away from these men, and whatever it was they were bringing with them. The other part, the much louder part, the part that pushed her to always run headlong into whatever trouble Harry was involved in during school, that part wanted to know more about this mark.

She looked at each of the men one more time, and seeing the looks of almost desperation on each of their faces, it was easy for her to make her final decision.

"Meet me back here at seven after I close. We'll talk more then."


	3. Chapter 3

"So what do you think?" Sam asked as they ate at the diner down the street from the bookstore; they were trying to kill time before meeting back up with the bookstore owner.

"She did not seem eager to talk about the Dark Mark," Cas said. "She didn't seem eager to talk about anything."

"Do you think whatever group she belongs to is demonic or cultish, and that's why she didn't want to talk?" Sam asked.

"Perhaps," Cas said. "Anything referred to as a 'Dark Mark,' does seem to have a very ominous connotation."

Sam sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Maybe we should have done some more research before we drove here. Do you think we've made a mistake coming here and showing her the Mark?"

"Who cares," Dean said around a mouthful of hamburger. "She might be able to help me get rid of this damn thing and I'm willing to try whatever she comes up with. We have nothing to lose."

"What if it's a matter of selling your soul?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "Nah, it can't be that easy. If it were, I'm sure Crowley would have said something months ago."

"I don't know," Sam said. "It's Crowley you're talking about."

Cas nodded his head in agreement. "Crowley isn't exactly known for his honesty, Dean."

"No, I'm certain if I had to sell my soul, or do anything else that relates to demons, to get rid of this, Crowley would have been dancing a fucking jig and telling everyone, because he's Crowley."

Sam sighed. "You're probably right. There was just something about her secrecy that bothered me."

"Sammy, we've been telling lies and half-truths for years, and we're not up to no good, most of the time. She could be a hunter. For all we know we stumbled upon a group of British hunters and she's freaking out because she doesn't know that we know about the supernatural world."

Sam stared at his brother as he took another obscenely large bite of his hamburger. "You've put an inordinate amount of thought into this. You really want her to be good."

Dean shrugged. "Did you look at her? She's fucking hot. Of course I want her to be good, Sammy. I don't want to waste my time flirting with a demon, now do I?"

Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"It's time to head back to the store," Cas interrupted the brothers.

"Already?" Dean whined. “But I didn't even get to eat any of that pie I saw up front."

"Order a slice to go," Sam said, digging into his pocket so they could pay the bill. "We don't want her to think we're not going to show up."

XxXXxxXXxx

When they reached the bookstore, the door was open, but it seemed to be empty.

"Hello?" Dean called out as they let themselves in.

"Just a minute," the owner called out from somewhere in the store. 

A minute later she came walking to the front of the store, her arms full of books. She walked over to the counter, and set the books down.

"Sorry about that, I just needed to a get a few resources before we started," she explained.

Dean eyed the books on the counter. "Are we doing research?" he asked.

She looked up, "Well, yes. How else do you think we're going to get to the bottom of that mark on your arm?"

"Look, no offense..." he trailed off, realizing he didn't even know her name.

"Hermione," the owner supplied.

"Right, no offense, Hermione, but we've done a lot of research..."

Sam cleared his throat.

Dean sighed. "My brother has done a lot of research and if the answers we were looking for were in a book, we wouldn't have driven all the out here to speak to someone who has first-hand experience in similar situations."

Hermione folded her hands and placed them on top of the pile of books in front of her, settling a glare on Dean. "Look," she paused.

"Dean," he supplied.

"Dean," she finished. "I don't know what kind of first-hand experience you and your brothers here think I have, but I do know that I've never seen a mark like the one you are currently sporting on your arm and when I'm faced with something that I've never seen before, I turn to the only thing I know to be the most reliable and that is books."

"Brother. I have only one, Sam there. The other one is our friend, Cas. And I've just told you, that you're wasting your time. We've, I mean, Sam's read every book on the subject, and there's nothing in there about getting rid of this thing."

"Maybe you've just not read the right books," Hermione snapped back, her eyes narrowing.

Dean opened his mouth to retort, but Sam stepped between the two, cutting off anything he was about to say.

"What can you tell us about the Dark Mark?" Sam asked, trying to move the topic of conversation to something that was more productive and less volatile.

Hermione shifted her focus to Sam, and her body language relaxed a little. "It was a mark that a very evil man put on his followers so that he would be able to summon them and control them while he worked on trying to take over the world."

"Evil man? Followers?"

"Yes, I guess you could say that he was a bit like Adolf Hitler and the men and women who were his Nazi soldiers. He viewed one type of person to be supreme over others and he strove to get that class of person to rule over those who he viewed as lesser beings. He marked his followers with what looked like an ordinary tattoo but there was something about them, some sort of magic, if you will, that would allow this man to summon his followers to his side a whim. I'm sure this all just sounds completely crazy to you," Hermione explained.

Sam shook his head, "Not at all. You would be surprised how low our crazy bar is set."

Hermione smiled. "That's good to know. Just let me know when I've hit it."

"Will do."

"So, crazy man marked a bunch of people with a magic mark. How did these people get out from under the mark's control?" Dean interrupted.

"The crazy man was killed, and all magic tied to him stopped working. The mark faded, and the people moved on with their lives by going on trial for their crimes and going to prison."

"Fuck," Dean cursed, turning away.

Hermione looked back at Sam. "What's wrong with him?"

"The person who put the mark on him is already dead. We came here hoping that whatever stopped people from being controlled by the Dark Mark would be what could stop his," Sam explained.

"Oh no, yeah, I already knew that you would probably need a different solution to your problem. The Dark Mark is completely different than what you have on your arm. The Dark Mark was more of a tattoo, and yours looks to be more of a scar, like it was carved into your arm. The Dark Mark was also in the shape of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. Yours looks almost runic. But it’s also something that I have never seen before. I'm hoping that I can have a closer look at your mark and that maybe I can find something in one of these books to explain. Tell me, how did you get your mark?"

Dean opened his mouth to answer but he was interrupted by someone who had been quiet during the entire evening up until this point.

"There's something wrong about you," Cas spoke up, staring intently at Hermione.

"Cas!" Sam and Dean yelled.

"What?" Hermione stuttered.

"There's something very off about you. You're not human, not completely, and yet, you're not demonic either. I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly it is, but there's something...off," Cas continued, ignoring the brothers' outburst.

Dean turned and faced Cas. "Cas, that's enough. You're being rude."

Cas started walking slowly toward Hermione, not taking his eyes off of her. "I'm not being rude; I'm pointing out the obvious. She's been spouting half-truths all night, nothing she's said is remotely the full truth, I can tell. And not only am I having trouble placing what is off about her, there's a strange...energy filling this whole store. I noticed it this afternoon and the longer I'm here, the more I can feel it buzzing around but I can't put my finger on what it is." Cas stopped in front of the counter, placing his hands on it, and leaned in until his nose was almost touch Hermione's. "You're not human, you're not a demon, what are you?"


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione stared at the man standing nose to nose with her, and struggled with how to answer his accusations. She knew without a doubt that the three men in her shop were muggles. But, she had no idea how Cas could tell that she was different. Up until this point, he hadn't really said anything; he just stood in the back of the group quietly, so she couldn't really get a read on him. And now, all she wanted to do was ask him how he knew she was a witch. But she couldn't exactly ask him those exact words, because of the statute of secrecy, so she was in a bind. 

"Um," Hermione started, still trying to think of what to say. "I really have no idea what you're talking about. Of course I'm human."

"Cas," Sam said. "What are you doing?"

"Yeah, man, give the girl a break. Give her some breathing room. I don't know what's gotten into you," Dean said.

Cas didn't move, he just kept looking at her through narrowed eyes. "There's something about you, an energy that I haven't felt in a long time. I should know what you are; it's on the tip of my tongue."

Hermione shook her head and tried to move a few steps away from him but couldn't get very far because of the cramped space behind the counter. "I don't understand, what energy?"

Cas didn't answer, he just closed his eyes, and sniffed. Suddenly his eyes popped open. "Witch."

Before Hermione had a chance to react, Sam and Dean had their hands behind their back and were pulling guns out, pointing them at her.

"Son of a bitch," Dean yelled. "I really wanted you to not be evil."

"Evil?" Hermione stuttered, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't make any sudden movements," Sam said, not answering her question.

Hermione eyed the guns pointed at her and tried not to panic. Somehow Cas knew she was a witch so technically she didn't break the statue to secrecy. And if everything went pear shaped, or got worse, she could always obliviate the three of them. With that plan in mind, she subtly flicked her wrist bringing her wand into her and from where it was stowed in her sleeve, and brought it up.

"Expelliarmus!" She shouted, flicking her wand in the direction of the brothers. She held out her hands and as the guns got closer, she flicked her wand again, vanishing them. The men protested, and moved like they were going to come and attack her, but she held her wand straight in front of her, and took a defensive stance. "Look, I don't want to hurt any of you. Can we please talk about this is in a calm fashion?"

"Hell, no," Dean shouted. 

Surprisingly, the voice of reason came from the man who outed her in the first place. "Sam, Dean," Cas said, turning to face them. "She's not like the witches you've encountered before, she's different. You should let her explain."

"Different? There are different kinds of witches?" Sam asked. "And different how?"

"Different as in she didn't make a deal with a demon in order to get her magic. She was born with it," Cas explained.

"Bullshit," Dean said. "If that's true, how come we've never encountered anyone like her before?"

"Because you're muggles, or non-magical people, and we have statutes that prevent us from revealing ourselves to you," Hermione answered, not moving from her defensive position. "Which makes me wonder how you knew what I was. I had you all pegged as muggles when you walked into the store this afternoon."

"I'm not human," Cas answered. "I'm an angel of the Lord, and I've encountered witches and wizards like you in the past, but those encounters were very infrequent. That's how I was able to tell what you were. Your magical signature gives off energy and it felt familiar, and it took me a while to place it, since I can't really remember the last time I encountered someone like you."

"An angel? Like a real angel?" Hermione said.

Cas nodded.

"And these two? Are they angels too?"

"Nope," Dean answered. "We're hunters actually."

"Hunters?"

"We hunt supernatural beings and kill them," Sam explained.

Hermione's eyes widened, and she took another step back, bumping into the shelves behind her counter. She lifted her wand in front of her, ready to stop them if they came after her. "I think it's time for you to leave."

"Hermione," Cas started.

She shook her head. "You need to leave, all of you."

"Hey, you said you would help us get rid of Dean's mark," Sam protested. "We're not going anywhere."

"That was before you told me that you kill 'supernatural beings,' of which I'm apparently one of. I'm not going to help you only for you to turn around and kill me for my efforts. So you can either leave of your own volition or I'll make it so you don't even remember me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can erase our memories? Is that what you're saying?" Dean asked. "I thought you were a good witch?"

"I am," Hermione stated, defensively. "But I will do what I have to do to survive."

"Let's all calm down for a second," Sam piped up. "There will be no killing, and no memory erasing. I'm sorry, Hermione, I shouldn't have said that we kill all supernatural beings. Exhibit A being our friend Cas here. We do kill ones that are causing harm or killing innocent people. I'm sure you don't fall into that category because we didn't even know you were here. We follow strange stories in the news and since you've been here for a while, and there hasn't been any strange and unexplainable deaths happening that have led us here to you, I can safely assume that you're not something we would typically hunt."

Hermione looked at Sam. Really looked at him. She could tell that he was being honest, and that he really didn't mean her any harm. She looked at Cas, who was still standing way too close to the counter for comfort, but was also looking very harmless. He actually was looking pretty smug, which she was sure had something to do with discovering her secret. She then looked at Dean, and he didn't look at all relaxed. He looked like he was working himself up and that he was about to do some real harm.

She turned and aimed her wand at Dean. "You can stay, and I will try and explain what I can to you, but only if he can stay under control."

Sam turned around and looked at Dean and Hermione watched him visibly tense.

"Dean," he almost shouted.

Dean didn't seem to hear him. He kept his gaze locked on Hermione, his breathing labored and his right fist clenching and unclenching, his eyes narrowed at her.

"Dean!" Cas and Sam shouted together, panic rising in their voices.

Dean still didn't acknowledge them. In fact, he started to growl.

"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked, not taking her eyes or her wand off of him. There was something about his actions that did not seem normal, and the fact that Sam and Cas were looking and sounding worried were a clear red flag that something wasn't right here.

"It's the Mark," Sam said, moving slowly toward where Dean was standing, his arms up in front of him.

"The Mark?" Hermione asked. "Someone is controlling his actions right now through the mark on his arm?"

Cas shook his head. "No, that's not how the mark works."

"Then how does it work?" she asked.

Before anyone could answer, Dean let out a yell and began to sprint toward her, flinging Sam, who was almost right next to him, to the floor. Without hesitating, Hermione rose her wand and shouted, "Stupefy!" watching as Dean fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Fuck," she muttered. "I'm going to be in so much trouble if the Ministry ever finds any of this out."

"What did you do?" Sam yelled from where he was knocked to the floor.

"Don't worry, he's not hurt, he'll regain consciousness within the hour," Hermione said, lowering her wand.

Cas walked over and helped Sam get to his feet, both of them standing over Dean's body, watching it rise and fall with every breath, both with worried expressions on their faces. 

Hermione moved from behind the counter and stood next to the two men.

"Well," Sam said. "As you can see, one of the side effects of the mark on Dean's arm is an uncontrollable rage."

"Yes, that doesn't seem to be a very pleasant side effect. Is it often triggered so easily?"

Sam shrugged. "It doesn't really seem to have a pattern. And the fuse is actually getting shorter and shorter. For example, you didn't do anything to warrant an attack. You didn't attack us, or attack anyone for that matter. Just the mere fact that you're a witch, even though you're not the same kind of witch that we're used to coming into contact with, seemed to be enough to trigger it."

"And you've found nothing that can help him gain control over the urges that the Mark makes him feel?"

Sam shook his head. "We've done a lot of research. We've exhausted all our resources. Finding you was our last ditch effort to try and do something to help him. He's just been getting worse and worse," Sam paused, swallowing, his voice getting hoarser the more he talked. "I just want to save my brother."

Hermione laid a hand on his arm, causing him to look down at her. "I don't know what I can do to help, I'm not even sure I can help. But I'm willing to try if you're willing to look past my being a witch, and if the three of you swear to not tell anyone of what I really am."

Sam turned so that he was facing her fully. He put his hands on both of her shoulders, squeezing them gently as he looked intensely into her eyes. His own were glittering with unshed tears. "I'm willing to do anything to save my brother. And if you're able to even help the tiniest bit, I will be forever in your debt."

Hermione nodded, swallowing back her own emotion. "Right," she said after a minute. "Since this whole situation just became extremely complicated, how about we move somewhere a bit more comfortable and we can see what we can find out, yeah?"


	5. Chapter 5

Sam helped Hermione move the stack of books she had just lugged to the front of the store back to the back room. As they weaved through the bookshelves he couldn't help stealing glances at her. He couldn't believe she was a witch. Well, it wasn’t that he couldn’t believe she was a witch, anyone had the potential to be a witch, it was that he couldn't believe she was a type of witch he had never heard of. With as many years they had been hunting, he was sure there was just the one, demon loving type.

"I can practically hear your thoughts," Hermione spoke up from beside him. "Go ahead and ask what's on your mind."

"So, you were born a witch? Were your parents witches too?" Sam blurted out.

Hermione chuckled. "Yes, I was born a witch. No, my parents weren't magical, they were muggles. I'm what the magical world calls a muggleborn."

"If your parents weren't magical, how did you know you were a witch?"

As a young girl I always exhibited accidental magic: making toys float, objects would explode when I was angry, things like that. Things that were small enough my parents could just explain them away. Then, when I was eleven, a woman showed up at my door, and explained that I was a witch and that I would need to attend Hogwarts, the Wizarding School. She explained everything to my parents and myself and suddenly everything began making sense."

The two walked into the backroom and Hermione gestured to the table in the center of the room for Sam to set the books down. After placing the books on the table, he turned around and watched as she finished laying blankets on the floor.

"What are those for?" he asked.

"Your brother, unless you just want him to lie on the hard ground?"

"How are you going to get him back here? Are Cas and I just going to carry him? He's heavier than he looks."

Hermione smiled and waved her wand in between her finger and her thumb at him. "Witch, remember? There's a spell for that."

"That stick, it's your--" he trailed off, feeling ridiculous even thinking the words.

"Magic wand?" Hermione asked, grinning. "Yes, it is. It's basically a conductor for our magic. It's made of wood and has a magical core. When they're eleven, every witch and wizard goes to the wand shop and they're matched up with their wand before they go to school."

"You've had that wand since you were eleven?" Sam asked, amazed.

Hermione shook her head. "No, I lost my first wand when I was--well, I lost it and I went and got this one when I was nineteen."

"How do you lose something as important as the thing that allows you to do magic?"

"It's a long story," Hermione said, turning and walking over to a bookcase, removing a book. "Something tells me that you have a million questions and that you won't be satisfied until you know everything. I've gathered from your brother that you are a reader and a researcher, so here," she handed him the book. "This will answer all of your questions. And yes, the Hermione Granger in the newest section of the book is me." 

Sam looked down at the book in his hand. "Hogwarts, a History," he read aloud. 

"My absolute favorite book, and the book that helped introduce me to the new world I was thrust into as a child," Hermione explained. "That will tell you everything you want to know about our world. And hopefully it convinces you that we're not evil and then you can convince your brother."

Sam sighed, looking up from the book. "I'm sorry about Dean. When he wakes up, he'll be better, I promise. He'll be a lot more logical. It's that mark, it messes with his mind, and he's just getting worse and worse."

Hermione sighed. "Well, let's not waste any more time then. Let's get your brother and the angel and we can sit down and start working on figuring this out."

She turned and walked out the door, and Sam quickly caught back up with her. 

"The man who put marks on people, he was a wizard?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, he was what you guys would consider an evil wizard. He was a very powerful man who wanted to create a wizarding world where purebloods were at the top and muggleborns and muggles were either eradicated or lived serving the purebloods. His followers were other purebloods who held the same views and wanted to help him reach his goal, which would involve him ruling over this new pureblood society. Each of his followers would prove their loyalty by being branded with the Dark Mark," Hermione paused and reached over, taking the book from Sam's hand. She opened it, easily flipping to the page she was looking for before handing it back to Sam.

Sam looked down at the page she had turned to. On it was a picture of a person's arm with skull with a snake coming out of its mouth before wrapping around it. "This is the mark this wizard used to control his followers? It looks almost just like a normal tattoo."

Hermione nodded. "It does," she said as they finished their walk back to the front of the store. "Which is why I'm baffled by the Mark on Dean's arm. It doesn't look like the Dark Mark, but you've mentioned that it has magical properties. After we get him settled in the back I want you to tell me everything about the mark and don't leave anything out."

She walked up to Dean, waved her wand, said something in Latin he didn't quite catch, and he watched with wide eyes as his brother began floating in the air. He watched as Hermione didn't say anything else, she just began walking back to the backroom with her wand trained on Dean. 

"Do you think she'll be able to help us, now?" Cas asked from beside him.

Sam shook his head. "I honestly have no idea. But the fact that she can do that," he gestured at where Hermione had disappeared behind a shelf. "Is definitely promising. I mean, I didn't even know witches and wizards existed and I'm wondering if the Men of Letters even did. I know we haven't gone through all their files yet but you would think that we would have come across some kind of mention of this community if they had."

"So you're thinking that she might have the solution that we seek?"

"It's a possibility. She says they try and keep hidden. Who knows what kind of stuff their magic can do that no one, not even Crowley, is aware of? I'm telling you Cas, I feel good about this. Really good."

"Do you think Dean will listen to her? Trust her? If we were dealing with pre-mark Dean, I wouldn't even have to ask but ever since his confrontation with Cain," Cas trailed off.

"He's been distant and resigned to his fate, I know," Sam finished. "I don't know, Cas. I think it's going to be a struggle just to get Dean to trust Hermione in the first place. To convince him to let Hermione help him?"

"Almost impossible," Cas said. "He's going to run."

"I know," Sam said.

"I don't know if we're going to be able to stop him."

"I know."

"Are you going to tell Hermione?"

"Tell Hermione what?" 

Both men turned around to see Hermione standing with her arms crossed. 

"Dean might not be completely willing to get the Mark off his arm, he might try to run. And if he does, I don't know if we'll be able to find him."

"Yes we will. I can perform a locater spell, don't worry about that. Why won't he be willing? What aren't you telling me about this mark?"

Sam and Cas exchanged a look. 

"Whatever it is, just tell me. Just get it over with quickly like tearing off a plaster. I promise you, I can handle whatever it is."

"It's the Mark of Cain," Sam blurted out. "And after Dean confronted Cain to try and get him to take the Mark off, he said that Dean was going to essentially become insatiable when it comes to killing and everything will end when he eventually kills me." 

Hermione looked at them, eyes wide. "Cain, as in Cain and Abel?"

Sam nodded.

"And you're an angel?" she said pointing at Cas.

Cas nodded.

Hermione sighed, running her hand through her hair, causing several tendrils to come free from the messy bun she had pulled on the top of her head. "Merlin," she breathed out. "This sounds like it's going to be a long night. I'm going to run home, grab some beer from my fridge, feed my cat, and I'll be back in ten minutes."

Without any further explanation, Sam and Cas watched as she did a slightly little turn and then a loud POP sounded in the shop, and she was gone.

"What. The. Fuck," Sam exclaimed, gesturing at the spot where Hermione was just standing. 

Cas clapped Sam on the shoulder, “Let’s go to the back room and wait, I think you need to sit down.” The two walked to the backroom to wait for Hermione’s return, and to flip through the book that she left them with.


	6. Chapter 6

"Wow," Hermione said, finishing off the piece of pizza in her hand. "That's quite the story. If I weren't already involved in what you would call supernatural activity, I would find it very hard to believe. How on earth were you going to explain this all to me before you knew I was a witch?"

Sam shrugged. "Pretty much the same way, except with many, many more pleas to believe what I was saying."

Hermione laughed. When she had returned from her flat, pizza and beer in hand, she had found Sam and Castiel huddled over "Hogwarts: A History." It didn't take long for the two men to explain everything about the mark, and how it had been affecting Dean. She listened intently, trying to pick up on all the small details, but the whole time wondering if they were just wasting their time with her. 

She stole a glance over to where Dean was laying and frowned. She had never heard anything about The Mark of Cain but that didn't mean much; she had also not been aware of the existence of demons or several of the other creatures Sam had explained to her. Hermione just hoped that somewhere in one of her many books she would find something to help the Winchesters. She liked them. Well, she liked Sam; she'd barely had any interaction with Dean so far and part of the interaction she had had with him was him trying to attack her. But, if he was even a little bit like his brother, she was sure she would like him, too and that was enough for her to want to help him.

"So," she said. "You've exhausted all the sources you have at your compound and you just happened to stumble upon that website run by muggleborn witches and wizards that pointed you in my direction. Is that correct?"

Sam nodded. "Yep, that is correct. I figured it would be a long shot but I couldn't just give up, you know?"

Hermione nodded. "I completely understand and I'm willing to do whatever I can to help you but I do work. However, you're more than welcome to come here and search through my books and see if you can find anything that can help you. Most of my magical texts are in this back room, and I have a lot more at my flat that I can bring in as we start exhausting resources here. And I'll help when I can, during my breaks and after I close."

Sam breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you. You don't know how much I, we, appreciate that. I promise, we'll try and stay out of your way."

"Oh, don't worry about that. It can be pretty slow around here I will enjoy having the company." She turned and gestured at Dean. "Should we wake him up and tell him the plan?"

Sam nodded. 

Hermione pointed her wand at Dean. "Renervate," she said.

Dean sat up with a gasp. "Son of a bitch," he said, bringing his hands up to his face. "What the hell just happened?"

"You tried to attack Hermione, she stopped you by knocking you unconscious with her magic," Cas explained.

"Magic? Right. She's a witch, but not one that deals with demons, she's good. Like Glinda," Dean said, still rubbing at his face. "Fuck, my head feels fuzzy. How long was I out?"

"A couple of hours. I needed to make sure that I was able to find out everything about that mark on your arm without you interrupting and trying to kill me again. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I had to do that."

Dean shook his head, "Nah, it's no big deal. I would have done the same. Do I smell pizza?"

Hermione passed him the mostly empty pizza box. "Other than a fuzzy head, you're feeling okay?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I'm feeling fine. Look, I'm sorry for wanting to gank you back there. Sometimes it's really hard for me to think. I get irrationally angry, and I get tunnel vision. It's a good thing you have that magic stick thing, it could come in handy."

"Sam explained about your mark and what it does to you. I don't know how much help I'm going to be but, as I told Sam and Cas, you're more than welcome to use my resources and I'll try my best to help in whatever way possible."

Dean flashed her a smile, "Thanks, Glinda, we really appreciate it but I'm going to try and not get my hopes up that you'll be of any help," he took a large bite of his pizza, before speaking his mouth full. "Now, where the hell did you magic away our guns?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"She's a fucking war hero!" 

Dean sat up in bed, still half asleep, "What?" he said looking around. "Who?" he asked, relaxing back into the bed with his eyes closed when he realized there wasn't any danger.

"Hermione," Sam said. He was lounging in his bed reading the book he was given the night before. He had woken up early and decided to read the section on the woman who was helping him. He found her easily in the index and read all about her contribution to the Wizarding World when she was merely a teenager. 

"A war hero? She's gotta be my age, Sammy, what war did she fight in? Iraq?"

Sam shook his head. "Not a human, or muggle war, but a wizarding war that took place back in the late nineties in Britain."

"I thought these wizards and witches were supposed to be good? Why would there be a war?"

"Because not all of them were good. One of them, the one who put marks on the arms of his followers, was particularly evil and Hermione helped the savior of the wizarding world defeat him, according to this book. She was right in the middle of everything. She helped find the items to destroy him, was captured and tortured, and fought in the front lines of the culminating battle. She's described as the 'brightest witch of her age' several times in here."

Dean let out a low whistle. "Brightest witch of her age? Then why the fuck is she working in some bookstore in America?"

Sam shook his head. "No idea. But, Dean, don't you get it? I'm sure this means that she'll be able to help us."

Dean shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know, man, I don't want to get our hopes up, you know? So she's the smartest witch ever, she's still just a witch, still just human. If Cain couldn't help me get this fucking mark off my arm, then I don't know if anything can."

"You need to stop thinking that for just a little bit. Let's go over to the bookstore, see what Hermione has to offer, and if we exhaust her resources without finding anything, you can go back to your self-resignation and mope in a corner until this all ends. Deal?"

Dean sighed. "Fine. But before we head over to the store, can we pick up some breakfast? I'm fucking starved."

By the time they made it to the store it was already open and they had more to-go boxes from the diner down the street than they could easily carry.

"Bloody hell," Hermione exclaimed, rushing over to help them by taking a box from each of them. "Are we expecting more people? You have enough food to feed an army."

"Nope, most of this is mine, Glinda," Dean said, flashing her a smile. 

"How do you manage to eat this much and still look the way you do? I would imagine you would be five hundred pounds if you ate like this all the time."

"Chasing after demons and other monsters burns a lot of calories. Plus, I have a high metabolism. And some of this is for Sam, plus we got you some pancakes, though we weren't too sure on what food you liked."

Hermione smiled up at him. "Pancakes are just fine. Let's take these to the backroom and eat. I'm famished; I didn't have time to eat before rushing over here this morning." She started to head back to the back before pausing. "Where's Castiel?" she asked, looking around for the missing angel.

"Oh, he had to take off this morning. His daughter needed him for something," Sam answered.

"Daughter? I thought he was an angel?" she asked, confused.

"Long story," Sam answered. 

"Seems like we have a lot of those between us," she answered as they started walking to the backroom again.

"It seems we do," Sam answered. "I would love to hear more about your actions during the war, you know from your perspective, when this is all over."

"I see you found my section in Hogwarts: A History."

"I did. But I don't know how much the author took liberties with your story and I would like to hear about your role directly from you. Like were you really tortured?"

Hermione looked down, and unconsciously brought her hand to touch her left arm. "Yes, I was," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry," Sam said, just as quietly, moving a bit closer to her. "I didn't mean to bring it up to upset you. I was just curious. Dean and I have been through a lot, I mean A LOT, and finding out that you've been through probably just as much, it really made me feel like you really are the person to help us."

"It's okay, Sam, really, it's just really hard for me to think about it, even after nearly twenty years. It all seems so very fresh in my mind."

"I get that. If you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to. I mean, you barely know me."

"Thanks, maybe once all of this is over but I'm not going to make any promises."

"Noted," Sam said, smiling at her.

She looked away, blushing a little bit.

"What are you two whispering about up here?" Dean said, squeezing his way between them.

"Nothing," they both answered.

Dean looked between them, furrowing his brow. "Well, whatever, are we going to read some boring books and get our grub on or what?"


	7. Chapter 7

Hermione sighed and tossed another book to the side. It was Sunday, three days after the Winchesters had shown up at her store asking for her help. Her shop was closed, so she was spending her day helping the brothers with their research. She had been completely caught off guard, and very impressed, when Sam had said that he knew how to read Latin. It made choosing which books to put out for them a lot easier since she didn't have to check and make sure they were in English first. Of course, they weren't having any luck either way. There was no mention of the Mark of Cain in any of the books they have looked through thus far. And it was becoming frustrating.

"No luck, Glinda?" Dean asked from behind his own pile of books. It was considerably smaller than hers and Sam's. It was almost like he wasn't trying very hard to find the cure to his own problem.

She turned to glare at him. "When are you going to get tired of calling me that?"

Dean smirked. "Never, if I can keep getting a rise out of you. You're kind of sexy when your nostrils flare and you narrow your eyes at me."

Hermione narrowed her eyes even more. "You're incorrigible."

Dean smirked even more. "Oh yeah, baby, just keep looking at me like that. It makes me want to do unspeakable things to you," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Hermione stood with a huff, pushing her chair violently back behind her and walked over to the shelf to look for another book to read.

"Next time, you're going on the food run," she muttered under her breath, scanning the titles of the books trying to find another one about cursed marks.

"Are you saying you prefer Sammy's company to mine?" Dean asked, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the table in front of him.

"That is exactly what I'm saying," Hermione snapped back.

"Aw, c'mon. What makes him so much better than me?"

"Well, first, he doesn't call me Glinda. And second, he doesn't grate on my nerves," she replied not taking her eyes off the shelf.

"You really need to get that stick out of your ass. Are all English chicks this stuffy?"

Hermione whipped around ready to let him have it, but stopped short when she caught sight of his arm. His hands were folded behind his head, and the sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled up, exposing the Mark to her sight. She walked slowly over to him, never taking her eyes off the mark.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked, uneasy with the way the witch was walking toward him, staring at his arm.

"May I get a closer look at your Mark?" she asked.

"Um, I guess, so," Dean answered, taking his feet down of the table and offering her his right arm.

Hermione reached out, taking his arm in both of her hands, bending down to get a closer look at the Mark. She ran her fingers over the raised mark, jerking back as Dean hissed.

"I'm sorry, does that hurt?" she asked, quietly.

Dean shook his head. "Not really, just a little uncomfortable. I'm not sure it likes being touched."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "I'll try not to touch it again. It's just this symbol isn't something I've seen before and I have to wonder if it's significant. Did Cain say anything about it when he gave it to you?"

Dean shook his head. "Not specifically about the symbol, no."

Hermione turned her attention back to the mark, staring at it, like it was going to tell her it's secrets. She felt Dean shift again and stiffened when she felt his free hand move up and move the hair that had fallen out of her haphazard bun and into her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked, hating how breathless she sounded and how her face was reddening. 

"Helping you out, figured you could see a lot better without that mess of hair in your way," Dean answered.

She nodded. "Well, thank you," she muttered, turning her attention back to the mark.

She didn't know how long she was staring at it before she could feel Dean's breath on her neck and the touch of his nose nuzzling her cheek. She closed her eyes as she felt his soft lips press barely there kisses on her neck, his free hand coming up and cupping the back of her head. 

The sound of the front door opening caused Hermione's eyes to fly open, as she dropped Dean's arm and flew back from him as if he were on fire.

"What the hell was that?" she hissed.

Dean shrugged, "Instinct took over. I had a beautiful woman practically in my lap, I did what was natural. Didn't see you objecting to it."

Hermione narrowed her eyes and was about to respond when Sam came in carrying take out from the diner down the street. It seemed it was the favorite of the brothers; they ate almost every meal there every day.

"I'm sorry it took so long, they were really busy," Sam was saying as he walked into the room, but stopped short when he noticed the tension in the room. He glanced between his brother and Hermione. "What did he do?" he asked.

Dean scoffed. "Me? Why do you automatically assume I'm the one who did something?"

"Because it's usually you."

"It's nothing, Sam, don't worry about it," Hermione said. "Just Dean being himself, really."

Sam sighed and set the food down on the table. "Any luck while I was gone?"

Hermione relaxed and turned her attention fully on Sam. "Yes and no. The book I was reading was unhelpful, which doesn't come as a surprise, but after getting a better look at the Mark itself, I have to wonder if we've been going about this the wrong way."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Well, we've been focusing all of our research solely on cursed marks. What if it's not that simple? I think we need to shift our focus from cursed marks to Ancient Runes and see if that Mark isn't a rune and go from there."

"That's actually a great idea, one I wouldn't have come up with because I have no idea what runes are but it's one I'm willing to go with because we're not having any luck on this other route."

"Brilliant, I have loads of Ancient Runes texts back at my flat, I just need to go there and gather them and I can get them back here so the three of us--"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Dean interrupted. "How about we do this. You take Sam back to your flat and you two can sort through the books there. I can stay here on the laptop and look for a case because I'm starting to get stir crazy here."

"Dean," Sam started.

"No, look, Sammy, you know research isn't really my thing and the idea of going through even more books is enough to just drive me crazy. Let me find a case, you and Hermione can follow this lead, and we get back together in a couple hours and compare notes. This way Hermione doesn't have to lug even more books back here, saves her the trouble and manual labor."

"Glad to see you're looking out for me while we do research to solve your problem," Hermione answered.

"Listen, Glinda, this mark will become everyone's problem if we don't get it figured out," Dean said.

"Fine," Sam interrupted. "You stay here and find us a job, we'll go back and research. If anything it'll keep the two of you from killing each other for a couple hours. Just promise me you won't go off on a job alone."

"Cross my heart," Dean said.

"Great," Sam said, picking up two of the three styrofoam containers. "So how are we going to your place? Do you live close?"

Hermione smiled, lacing her arm through his elbow, pulling him close to her. "I would close your eyes, it'll make it easier." 

And with that she turned them a little on the spot and with a crack they left the bookstore.


	8. Chapter 8

"Holy shit," Sam gasped out as they materialized in Hermione's living room. She let go of his arm and Sam leaned over, hands on his knees, taking deep breaths to try and stop the rolling of his stomach.

Hermione giggled as she stepped away. "Sorry about that. You get used to it."

Sam shook his head. "Doubt it," he mumbled under his breath.

Hermione laughed again, and moved toward the bookshelves that lined the walls of her living room. "I think most of my books on runes are in this room, so we can start here. I may have a few in the guest room, but we can go look in there in a little bit.”

Sam nodded, standing up straight again. "Alright, let's get started. I don't trust Dean to not go off without us on anything that he finds."

"Us?" Hermione asked, turning around from where she was looking at the books.

Sam froze on his way to set the food he had brought. "I mean, me. I don't know why I said us."

"Do you want me to go on a hunt with you?"

Sam shrugged. "It might be nice. I mean, you have a lot of experience being out in the field, albeit for different reasons, and you have a lot of skills that would really help us, especially with Dean being...the way he is."

Hermione nodded. "It's been a long time since I've been out in the field. I'm a little out of practice, and I have a job..."

"I know," Sam interrupted. "I know, and I totally understand if you don't want to."

"It's not that I don't want to, I just don't know if I can. I might be more of a hindrance than a help at this point. I don't want to put either of you in danger, especially since I've never interacted with any of the creatures you typically deal with."

Sam shook his head. "You wouldn't be a hindrance, I promise you. If anyone is going to hinder a job, it would be Dean."

Hermione sighed. "Yes, he's a little unstable. And if he acts even a fraction of the way he did when he found out that I'm a witch, I can see why you're worried about going out on a job with just him."

"Don't feel obligated to come with. I don't want to make you do something that you're not comfortable with."

"No, no. If Dean finds a job, I'll go with you both, but if it takes a long time, I might have to apparate back and forth, I don't want to keep my shop closed for too long."

Sam smiled. "You're amazing. Thank you so much. You've been a huge help on this thing with Dean's mark, and then agreeing to come with us on a job. I just don't know how I could ever repay you for your generosity. You didn't have to help us, but you still are. Even though we haven't made very much progress, it feels like this weight has lifted from my shoulders because I have someone else helping with everything."

"I wish I were able to help more, but hopefully this new line of research will lead us in the right direction and we'll be able to get that mark off of Dean's arm soon."

"Let me put this food down and I'll come help you look for books," Sam said, resuming his trek to the table. He took no more than two steps before he stepped on something that had wheels, causing him to lose his balance and fall, hitting the ground hard on his back.

"Oh my god!" Hermione exclaimed rushing to his side. "Are you alright?"

Sam groaned, sitting up. "Yeah, I think so. What the hell did I just step on?"

Hermione bent down and grinned sheepishly. "A Hot Wheel. I'm so sorry. I must have missed it the last time I cleaned up my flat."

"A Hot Wheel? Do you have a kid?" Sam asked.

Hermione shook her head. "No, but I have two godsons, and they were here a few days ago to visit and they get so many toys out, I must have missed this one. I'm so sorry."

Sam shook his head, "It's okay. I've had worse happen. Do they live here in town, your godsons?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, they're back in London."

"Wow, long way to travel for a visit."

"Wizards, remember?" Hermione said, with a smile.

"Ah, yes, I keep forgetting. Do all your friends and family still live in London?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, they do. Magic really comes in handy for when I become homesick. I can easily pop over and spend a weekend with my parents or my friends."

"Why did you leave? I mean, I saw on that message board that you left in a hurry and they seemed to make a big deal about it."

Hermione frowned, taking the boxes of takeout, which he had managed to keep from spilling, from Sam's hands and bringing them over to the table. 

Sam noticed her frown, and stood up, walking toward her. "I'm sorry, you don't need to answer that. I was being too nosy."

"No, no," Hermione said. "It's just I haven't thought about it in a while. I try to keep myself busy, and it's been five years, so I've had some time to move on. But, I left London because I couldn't stand to be in the same place my ex-husband was. It was a big deal because, not only was I divorcing a war hero, I was a muggleborn divorcing a pureblood, which might as well have been the same as if I killed someone if you believed the trash the reporters wrote about me."

"Wow, I'm so sorry. I didn't even know you were married. That wasn't in Hogwarts: a History."

"Yeah, that's not the most updated version. Ron and I married very young, and we really tried to make it work; we were doing a damn fine job at it. We finished our seventh year at Hogwarts, I went to University and he went off to train to be an Auror, and then when we entered our respective careers, we decided we wanted a baby. Ron's from a big family and he desperately wanted a large family of his own. I wanted to embrace normalcy. Well, after trying for a while, I finally went to see a healer, and found out that the torture I endured during the war not only left me with outward scarring, it also took away my ability to have children. When he found out, Ron was devastated. We tried to make it work after that, but less than a year later, Ron came to me and asked me for a divorce. Not even a day after the ink dried on the papers, he was stepping out with someone new and a couple months later, they were announcing she was pregnant and they were getting married. I couldn't stay and watch someone else live out my dream life. So I left," Hermione finished wiping the tears that had fallen from her cheek.

Sam walked over to her, and wrapped her in a hug, pulling her tight against his body. He held her as her body shook with silent sobs, and her tears soaked his shirt. 

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. But it just seems so unfair that after everything you've gone through with the war, you still managed to get screwed out of the life you wanted."

Hermione pulled back, looking up at Sam through watery eyes. "Don't get me wrong, I'm living a great life. I love it here in Boston. I just wish that I didn't have such a public life in London where they very loudly publicized the fact that my husband didn't want me anymore because I was defective. Those are the words they used, Sam, defective. Like I'm some kind of appliance or something."

"What fucking assholes," Sam said. "You're not defective. I don't want you to believe that for one second. You were fucking tortured trying to save their asses. You're a war hero and, regardless of the fact that you're a muggleborn or not, you deserve the accolades that come along with that. The fact that you can't have children is not your fault, and your ex better hope I never meet him because I have a few choice words for the way he treated you both before and after your split."

Sam paused to take a breath as he finished his rant, looking down at Hermione, who was looking up at him with a strange look in her eyes. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong but before he could, she reached up, placed her hand behind his head, pulling him down, and kissing him.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam was caught off guard for exactly two seconds before he began to return the kiss in earnest. He wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist, pulling her into his body. He took advantage of the gasp she let out by deepening the kiss. Hermione moaned into his mouth, and that just spurred him on. It had been a while since he last held a woman. He moved his hands, lifting the hem of her shirt up, caressing the skin he found there.

As soon as his hands made contact with the bare skin of her back, Hermione pushed back, breaking their kiss. They were both breathing heavily, and it took a second before Hermione spoke up.

"I'm so sorry," she said. 

Sam shook his head, catching his breath. "You have nothing to be sorry for," he looked up, making eye contact and smirking, "I didn’t mind."

Hermione blushed, and looked down. "I enjoyed it, too, but I feel before we continue or do it again, I have to share something with you."

"What?"

"Dean kissed me, earlier, before you came back to the shop with lunch," she said, not looking up.

The smile slipped from Sam's face. "Dean kissed you? My brother. The one who's been a complete asshole to you the entire time we've been here. That Dean?"

Hermione nodded. "Believe me, it caught me just as off guard as you. I don't know where it came from, but he did it. And I don't know how to feel about this whole situation."

"Please elaborate," Sam said.

"Well, I like you, Sam, a lot. We have a lot in common and you're a very sweet guy. And judging by the kiss we just shared, I'm assuming you share some of my feelings. However, Dean apparently has some feelings toward me as well, and I don't want to come between two brothers, especially two as close as the two of you are. And definitely not right now."

Sam sighed. "If you have feelings for me, you can just explain to Dean, and I'm sure he'll understand."

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You want me to explain to a man who has very little control over his emotions, especially ones that involve anger, that I fancy his brother more than him? Do you think I have a death wish?"

"Wait, more than him? As in you "fancy" Dean as well?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, what I'm saying is that I like you, a lot. But I don't want to come between you and your brother. I think what we really need to focus on right now is seeing if we can find a solution to get that Mark off Dean's arm. We shouldn't be distracted. Once we get rid of the Mark, we can think about maybe talking about what is going on between the three of us."

Sam nodded. "That makes sense. Yeah. Let's focus on getting that mark off Dean, and then we'll see what happens."

"Thank you for being so understanding," Hermione said. 

"Hey, I get it. Even if Dean hadn't kissed you this morning, starting anything with each other now would be irresponsible. We need to keep our heads in the game. Dean could snap at any minute."

"Should we have left him alone in the shop?" she asked.

"Probably not. So I would suggest we shovel that lunch in our mouths, grab any books you think will be useful, and head back. If we're gone too long, Dean might just try and leave without us if he finds a job."

Half an hour later, Sam and Hermione had eaten their lunch and grabbed all the books on Ancient Runes they could find on her shelves, shoving them into her beaded bag with the extendable charm on it. Taking one more look around her apartment, Hermione held out her hand for Sam.

"Ready?"

Sam eyed her hand skeptically. "Can't we just walk?"

She shook her head. "This is much faster. C'mon, it'll be over before you know it."

Sam slowly walked over, taking her hand in his, and squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the trip.

Hermione smiled over at him, turned on the spot, apparating them back to the shop.

When they landed, Sam felt a little better than when they had landed in her apartment, probably because he knew what to expect. Once he recovered, he looked around the back room before noticing Dean standing up, throwing things into their bags.

"Did you find a case?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, a string of suspicious deaths a few hours away. Should be an easy job, seems like the MO of a vengeful spirit. You coming?"

Sam nodded. "Of course." He turned to Hermione. "Want to come learn how to kill a vengeful spirit?"

Hermione smiled. "Let me make a couple floo calls and arrange for someone to watch my cat, and grab a few more books from here, and I'm in."

Dean threw their bags over his shoulders. "Great. I'll be waiting in the car. Don't take too long."

When he left the room, Sam turned to Hermione. "We need to keep an eye on him the whole time we're on this hunt. One wrong move.."

"And innocent people die," Hermione finished, grimly watching the spot Dean exited, wondering for the first time since the Winchesters came into her life, if she made the right choice accepting their plea for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on Tumblr! Search for beatlechicksteph, and I'm there! Ask me questions, review my fics, find out what I'm doing with my life. I would love to get to know my readers!


	10. Chapter 10

Sam and Dean sat outside of Hermione's shop in the Impala waiting for her to wrap up everything she needed to do. She was currently on a Floo call with someone named Harry about feeding her cat until she got back, and calling in favors with a couple people to come run her shop for her while she was gone. Dean was tapping impatiently on the steering wheel while Sam was looking out the window at the shop waiting for Hermione to come out. 

"How long is she going to take? I'm ready to get on the road. Ice some spirits."

"It's only been twenty minutes, give her some time. She's doing us a favor coming along."

"She doesn't need to come. She'll just get in the way. She can stay here, do some research while we’re taking care of this spirit, and hopefully she'll have the solution for the mark on my arm by the time we get back. We don't have time for her to get in the way, to teach her how to defend herself," Dean said.

"She can take care of herself. I'm sure she knows some spells that will come in handy, maybe even better than what we use. And besides, you know I'll feel much better with another person there with us. You're...unpredictable at best these days, and I don't want to be in the middle of a case, alone, and for you to have complications with the mark."

"We'll call Cas in, he can be your backup."

"We haven't heard from Cas since he left to be with his daughter. I think it's best that we just let him deal with his family thing. I don't know why you're so against Hermione coming with us. You kissed her earlier. That doesn't seem like the actions of a man who doesn't want her around."

Dean turned in his seat to face Sam. "She told you I kissed her?"

"Yeah," Sam answered, not looking at him.

"Why, why would she tell you that? That's none of your business."

Sam took a deep breath and turned to face his brother. "Because I kissed her, too, okay?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean said, holding his hands up. "You kissed her too? After I kissed her, you kissed her?"

"Yes, but I didn't know you kissed her, until she told me, after I kissed her. Though technically she kissed me. But that's neither here nor there."

"Wait, she kissed you? Like she initiated it? Why would she do that after I kissed her?"

"I don't know, Dean. Because she wanted to? I mean neither of us even knew you had any positive feelings for her, let alone that you were attracted to her enough to kiss her. You've been an ass to her the entire time we've been here. The two of you have been at each other’s throats."

"I haven't been an ass to her. Name me one time I've been an ass to her."

"You tried to kill her when you found out she was a witch!" Sam yelled.

"That was one time!" Dean yelled back. 

"You've been snapping at her and a sarcastic bastard the entire time we've been here. How was I supposed to know that you were attracted to her?"

"I was flirting," Dean tried to explain weakly.

"No you weren't!" Sam yelled.

"Fine, I wasn't. It's this damn mark. It's like the thing hates her because it knows she wants to destroy it. I like her, I really do. I think she's amazing and smart and beautiful, but instead of allowing me to act like I think all those things about her, the Mark makes me tease her, and taunt her, and try and hinder all of her progress."

"Really?" Sam asked.

"Really. Like really truly. I'm sorry. If I had made it clear that I liked her earlier, would you have still kissed her?"

Sam was quiet. After a few moments, he finally answered. "Yeah, I would have. Because I think she's amazing and smart and beautiful, and when we were at her apartment earlier, she said that she was attracted to me. But we agreed that we wouldn't do anything until after we took care of your mark. It's too dangerous right now to add feelings into the mix. So I think you need to do the same thing. You need to agree that there will be no more passive aggressive kissing until we take care of this mark. Then we can deal with whatever feelings there are between the three of us after, agreed?"

Dean sighed. "Yeah, agreed."

"Good, because here comes Hermione."

The brothers looked up to see Hermione walking out of the shop, her beaded bag the only thing she was carrying. Sam opened up the passenger door, before climbing out, leaning the seat forward and then climbing into the back seat. Hermione climbed in and shut the door. 

"Sam, you didn't need to climb back there, I could have. I'm much shorter than you."

"It's okay, I'm good. You shouldn't have to climb over the seat."

"How chivalrous of you, Sammy," Dean snarked from the driver's seat, as he put the car into gear and peeled away from the curb. "Is that all you brought, Glinda? You realize we're probably going to be gone for several days. Unless you're going to do your 'poofing' trick, I don't think you brought enough for this mission. You sure you don't want me to just take you right back and you can stay here?"

Hermione held up her beaded bag. "Undetectable extension charm. I have a week’s worth of clothes and all of the books I could find at my flat and in my shop on Ancient Runes, along with a few books I could find that I remembered that mentioned vengeful spirits. I figured I better do some reading up on the subject since I have no idea on how to deal with them."

"We can fill you in," Sam piped up from the back seat. "Besides, we're not even sure that that's what we're dealing with. We'll have to figure out what it is when we get there."

"So, how do you guys usually go about getting your information? I don't want to hinder your investigation at all so tell me what you need me to do."

"Well, Dean and I usually go in as the FBI and ask around. We have fake badges and aliases. We don't have any of that for you, so I think it would be best if you stay at the motel while we go and talk to the locals and figure out what exactly is going on. We can call or text you with the information we find, and you can use the Internet or your books or one of ours to try and narrow down what we are dealing with. I mean, if it's a vengeful spirit, it'll be pretty obvious and cut and dry. In that case, we'll just need you to help us find out where the body is buried so we can salt and torch the sucker," Sam explained.

"You guys impersonate federal agents?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Dressed the way you are? In layers of flannel? Who believes that?"

"We have suits, Glinda," Dean snapped from next to her. 

Hermione started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked from behind her.

"You two in suits. Oh, I can't wait to see this!" Hermione said, before opening up her bag and grabbing a book to read.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"Researching," she said. "If we're going to be in the car for a while, I might as well work on figuring out if that mark is a rune or not."

"Hand me a book," Sam said. "I'll work on this, too." 

Hermione pulled another book out of her bag and handed it back to him.

"Oh for Christ's sake," Dean said. "If you two are going to have your noses in books the whole ride, I need some music." 

He twisted the radio knob roughly, and the sounds of Lynrd Skynrd filled the car for the whole drive.


	11. Chapter 11

After four hours, Dean pulled the Impala into the parking lot of a dinky motel. 

"Stay here," he said, throwing open the door. "I'll go see what kind of vacancy they have and get us a room. Then we'll change and head over to the police station and see what they can tell us about the murder."

"Wait," Hermione said. "We're going to stay here? It looks like you can catch about five different diseases from this place just standing in there."

"It's cheap," Dean answered before slamming the door closed and walking up to the door into the lobby.

Hermione twisted in her seat to look back at Sam. "Any luck in your book?"

"None," Sam answered closing his. "There was one symbol that seemed to look similar, but it's not it. Yours?"

"Oh, you must be talking about the symbol for life force, I saw that one as well. I started to wonder if maybe the symbol for the polar opposite of that one would be our symbol, but then when I went to look it up, it was completely different so I stopped pursuing it. I think we're on the right track though. While you two are at the police station, I'll keep looking. It has to be along the lines of the runes relating to life and death, they're just too similar to ignore."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. What happens when you find the right rune? If it even is a rune?"

"Then I start researching magic to counteract the rune. I don't even know if that rune is something that can be counteracted, but most of them can. My ex-husband's oldest brother is a curse breaker, so if I can't figure it out on my own, I'm sure that he can either help me, or point me in the direction of someone who can. We will figure this out, and I bet if I can narrow it down, we'll be able to have this mark off of Dean when we get back to Boston. It all depends on how much of my help you need on this case."

Sam's jaw dropped open. "Wow, you really think that you'll be able to get all that work done in just a few days? And that it will be as easy as you're saying it will be?"

Hermione shrugged. "I don't see why not. Ancient Runes are pretty basic and since you said he got this mark from Cain, that rune is as ancient as it can get. If it's not a rune, which I firmly believe it is, then I we'll need to definitely confer with someone else, because I don't think I'll be able to help you. This is the last idea I have."

"No, no, this is great. We'll try and leave you alone as much as possible so you can get a lot of work done," Sam said.

"No, I want to help. If you need me, please don't hesitate to call or text. I'm very intrigued by this idea of a vengeful spirit. Back at Hogwarts we had ghosts floating around who interacted with the students but none of them could be described as vengeful. We had a troublemaking poltergeist but he was fairly harmless in the pranks he played."

"Friendly ghosts? That's something we don't usually encounter," Sam said.

"Yeah, it's pretty wicked. One time, during second year, our house ghost, Nearly Headless Nick--" 

Hermione was cut off by Dean's return to the car.

"That took a while," Sam said when Dean threw himself into the driver's seat. "I thought they had a vacancy, do they not? Is that what took so long?"

"They have a vacancy. Just one. One room, two beds. It took a while because I was sweet-talking the old lady into switching rooms around to accommodate us. Originally it was one room and one bed. I don't think the three of us want to get that chummy. So, we have two beds. Let's go in and change, and then go talk to the police about," he paused and read the name off the print out he had with him, "Charles Drake's unfortunate death and see what we can find out."

An hour later, Hermione had the room to herself after the boys had changed and headed out. The room was much cleaner than she had anticipated. Right now, the boys planned on her taking one bed, one of them taking the other, and one taking the floor. She wasn't sure why the boys wouldn't just share a bed, but she didn't question it. They had changed into their suits, which changed their appearances completely. They really looked the part of federal agents. Their aliases were a bit ridiculous, names of some classic rock artists she vaguely recognized, but they cleaned up real nice. As soon as they were changed, they left the room and she had gotten right to work. She had at least three books spread out around her and she was trying to find every single rune she could that related in anyway to life and death, even vaguely. There were a lot of runes that had similarities with the one on Dean's arm, but none that matched it exactly and that was beginning to frustrate her immensely. She placed her head down on the book and closed her eyes. There had to be something she was missing. Something that was completely obvious. Her phone rang.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hermione? It's Sam."

"Hey, Sam. How did questioning go?"

Sam sighed. "Not well. Dean lost it on the Sheriff."

"Lost it how?"

"The sheriff was being shifty, and not really being very cooperative or wanting to offer up any information on the case. And Dean just lost it. He started screaming at him, and grabbed him around the collar and pushed him against the wall, screaming in his face about how he's obstructing a federal murder investigation. It took me and two other officers to pull him off."

"Where is he now?" she asked.

"Sitting in the car, cooling off. I wanted to give you a heads up that he's not doing well. And we now have eyes on us. We're going to have to be extra careful on this case. I'm going to try and figure out a way to get you in the field with us. We might need your power to keep him under control when we're dealing with people."

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Whatever you need, I'll do it."

"Thanks," Sam said. "I really appreciate it. How's the research?"

"I feel like I'm running in circles, but I have this feeling that I'm close, really, really close."

"We're going to go check out the murder scene and then pick up some food along the way back. Anything you're in the mood for?"

"Nah, surprise me," she said.

"Okay, see you in a bit," Sam said, before hanging up.

Hermione set her phone down and put her head in her hands. It sounded like Dean's anger issues were getting worse. She really needed to figure out what was wrong with him and she needed to do it before he did something he was going to regret. But everything she was finding led to dead end after dead end. Frustrated, she began angrily flipping through the pages of the book in front of her. She stopped flipping with a gasp. There, sitting on the pages of one of her more rare runes books was the symbol that had been carved into Dean's arm.


	12. Chapter 12

Sam climbed into the car, slamming the door behind him. He turned to look at Dean, who was sitting there, gripping the steering wheel, looking straight ahead, jaw tight.

"We need to talk about what the hell went on in there," Sam said.

"Not now, Sammy," Dean growled, cranking the ignition in the car.

"Yes, now," Sam yelled back. "What the hell do you think you're doing? You can't just attack anyone who doesn't give us information! That's not the right way to go about things."

"I know that, Sam," Dean shouted, peeling away from the curb. "It's getting worse, the anger. I can't control it anymore. I can feel it eating away inside of me, and it wants to take over in the worst way. I don't know how much longer I can control it."

"Hermione said she has a lead, she thinks that if we don't use her too much on the case, she can find what she needs and by the time we get back to Boston, she can have the mark taken care of."

"Bullshit," Dean said. "I'll believe it when I see it. I think the both of you have too much hope, and too much faith, that she can solve our problem. The angels couldn't do it, the demons couldn't do it, Cain sure as hell couldn't help. What makes you think that some thirty something year old witch will be able to help?"

"Because of magic," Sam said. He turned and looked out the window. "Hey, I thought we were going to the crime scene?"

"Changed my mind," Dean said. "Going back to the motel. Going to get Hermione and take her with us. It took three of you to get me off that sheriff back there, and there's only one of you now. If things go pear shaped, I think we need back up. And her magic is some powerful shit; I want her there to knock me out if needed."

"Wow, that's some pretty rational thinking from you. That's a rarity lately."

"I know. That's why I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts."

The two drove in silence for the short time that it took to return to the motel. They both climbed out of the car and walked up to the hotel room. Dean opened the door, and could barely brace himself when the small witch jumped up from the table and ran toward him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Confused, he didn't know how to react until she whispered in his ear.

"I found it."

He shook his head. "What?" he whispered back.

"I found it. I found the mark," she whispered giddily in his ear, hugging him tighter.

Dean was astounded. He almost couldn't believe it. He started laughing, wrapping his arms around her waist and squeezing.

"What's going on?" Sam asked from behind them. 

Hermione released Dean, and he reluctantly let her go. She stepped away from him, and moved to his brother. 

"I found it, Sam. Right after I hung up with you I found the mark in one of my books!"

Sam let out a whoop of excitement, picking up Hermione and spinning her. "I knew you could do it!" 

Sam put her down, and she adjusted her clothes. "Well, I so far all I've done is find the symbol and what it means. Now I have to go about researching counter spells, but it's a start."

Dean shook his head. "No, this is huge. All of this time we've been asking for help from angels and demons even the fucker who slapped this baby on me, and no one could help us. And then you come along, and we get our first lead within a week. You're awesome."

Hermione laughed. "I'm glad you're starting to think I'm awesome. Maybe this will lead you to start using my real name?"

Dean laughed. "Nah, I like Glinda too much. I think I'll keep it."

"Ass," Hermione muttered with a smile. "How was the crime scene? You didn't stay too long, I thought we just hung up with each other."

"We didn't go," Sam said, moving fully into the room and shutting the door. "Dean didn't trust himself to not go crazy out at the site, so we came back for reinforcements."

"Me and my wand," Hermione stated. 

"Yep," Dean said, flopping back on the bed. "But if you want to stay here and start researching more about whatever you found out about my mark, I'll totally understand. We can send Sammy out by himself. We can stick around here."

Hermione turned to Sam, "It's up to you. I can stay and babysit Dean and research, or we can all head out to the site together. I'm up for whatever you're wanting to do."

Sam thought about it for a second. "You know, I think I'll go out and check out the site and pick up some dinner. You'll be fine here?"

Hermione nodded, "Of course."

"Dean, you'll behave yourself? I don't want to come back and find out she turned you into a frog or something because you couldn't stop being an ass."

Dean sat up from where he was lying on the bed, holding up three fingers. "Scouts honor."

"Okay, I'll be back in an hour."

"Be safe," Hermione said. "Call if you need anything."

"I will. Good luck with him," Sam said, gesturing at his brother. "I'm serious, if he can't control himself and is acting like a huge ass, turn him into a frog or something."

Hermione laughed. "I won't even hesitate."

"Hey," Dean protested from the bed. 

Sam and Hermione laughed, and Sam turned and left the room, leaving Dean and Hermione alone.

Hermione returned to her chair and opened a book.

She heard movement behind her, before Dean pulled up another chair next to her. "So, what can you tell me about what you've found so far, and how can I help you find out more?"

Hermione grabbed the book and opened to the mark page. "It's the symbol for darkness," she said. "But not darkness like night or the lack of light, but darkness as in evil and corrupt," she explained. "It's a rarely used symbol that hasn't been seen since Ancient Roman times."

"Well, you said these were ancient runes, so that would make sense that it hasn't been used since ancient times, right?"

"Well, not exactly," Hermione said. "They're called Ancient Runes because they're some of the first magic that existed. Wizards still use some of the runes today for protection or for very powerful spells, so it's a little disconcerting that this symbol has fallen out of use. That might make it a little harder to find ways to counter it or remove it."

"But there are ways, right?" Dean asked. 

Hermione shrugged. "Usually there are. Typically runes aren't created without a way to stop or counter it. But with this one falling out of use, the information we have available may be a bit limited. We need to just start scouring the books I have brought with me to try and find something. If we can't find anything in these books, I can always go to Hogwarts and use their Restricted Section until I find something. I'm sure that they would have a book there that would help us, if I don't already have it."

Dean nodded. "Alright, give me a book, and I'll start reading. I'm looking for anything that has to do with the symbol for darkness?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, anything you can find at this point will be useful."

Dean nodded. "Alright, hand me a book, and I'll get started."

Hermione handed him a book. "When you find anything, even if you think it's insignificant, mark the page. We may need it later. If you find anything that even mentions countering that damn mark, you tell me immediately."

Dean nodded, taking the book she handed him and moving over to the bed to get more comfortable.

An hour later found both of them completely ensconced in research. They each had a small pile of books around them, several of which had some information about the mark, but nothing that explained how to get the mark off something or someone that had it on them. 

Dean was sprawled out on his stomach on the bed flipping through another book. Usually he hated the research aspect of the job, but for some reason when it pertained to him and his wellbeing, he had no problems with spending his evening with his nose in a book. Throw in a cute girl, and he was sold. He might want to be the researcher all the time if these were the conditions in which he would research. He sighed, opening another book to the index, scanning the page until he found the word he was looking for. Flipping to the correct page and seeing the very familiar mark staring up at him, he started scanning the pages to see if there was anything about removing teh fucking thing. He was about to give up and put a marker in the book for later when something jumped off the page at him. 

"Hermione," he said, not looking up from the page.

"Hmm?" she answered. 

"Can you come look at this?" he asked, still not taking his eyes off of the book.

"Did you find something?" she asked. 

"You could say that," he said. 

He heard her push her chair back and pad over to the bed and he felt the bed depress where she laid down next to him. 

"What did you find?" she asked, her breath warm on his cheek. 

Dean gestured down at the page he was staring at. She shifted closer to him so she could get a closer look. Hermione was quiet as she read, he tried to not focus on how close she was, or how warm her body was. He took a deep breath. Or how good she smelled. Fuck. Self control, man, he thought to himself. Self control. He heard her gasp. She must have gotten to the part he found.

"Fuck," she muttered.

Yeah, he thought, that's what I thought.


	13. Chapter 13

Sam pulled up in front of the hotel and got out of the car, bringing with him a couple bags of takeout. He kicked the door shut and walked to the room, but stopped short when he saw Dean and Hermione on one of the beds together. He cleared his throat and the two of them jumped, swinging their heads in his direction.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Sam asked, trying to keep the jealousy down, and failing miserably. He walked over to the table and set down the food in one of the clear spots.

Hermione sat up. "Dean found something."

Sam turned around to look at her, forgetting about any kind of jealousy he had been feeling. "Found what?"

"The way to remove the mark," Dean said, sitting up behind Hermione.

Sam ran his hands through his hair, trying to stave off any excitement. "Yeah? That was really fast!"

"Once we narrowed down the symbol, the information was really easy to come by, we just had to find the right book," Hermione said.

Sam looked back and forth between the two. Neither one was looking the least bit excited. In fact, they were looking downright grim. "What aren't you telling me?" he said.

Hermione and Dean shared a look before turning back toward Sam. Hermione spoke up.

"First I have to explain that according to the book, the symbol on Dean's arm is the ancient rune for darkness, as in evil, corrupt. The symbol fell into disuse in the early first century AD, mostly because when used it brought upon unspeakable torture and evil on the person the rune was carved upon. The rune was only used on people, never on items, which is something I've never seen before. Anyway, according to the book Dean found, this mark is tied to something aptly named The Darkness, which is, according to the book, some legendary evil that God himself locked away at the beginning of time. I'm not sure how this symbol is tied to it but somehow whoever is carved with the symbol starts getting infected by this evil until they go so crazy and murderous they either kill themselves or are killed."

"Is that why you're looking so grim? Because you found out that the only way to get the Mark of Dean is to kill him?" Sam asked.

Hermione shook her head. "No, there's another way. We can perform a spell and a ritual to remove the mark, but we need to tie it to someone else, or else the Darkness will be freed from its confines wherever God locked it up, and unleashed unto the world."

Sam sat down in the chair Hermione had left before joining Dean on the bed. "Oh."

"Yeah," Dean said. "Our options are either kill me, or curse some poor guy to carry the mark and have them go crazy and start killing people until they're killed."

"I don't understand," Sam said. "If the person who bears the Mark gets killed, no one is bearing the mark anymore, so wouldn't that just release The Darkness into the world?"

Hermione shrugged. "I honestly don't know. In the entire history of the symbol, Cain has always also bore the Mark. He carried it for millenia. But someone," she looked back at Dean, "went and killed him, leaving Dean as the only bearer of the Mark, as far as we know. So, that's where it leaves us. We need to decide do we take a chance that someone else somewhere in the world also bears the mark right now, and just remove it without binding it to someone, or do we pick someone to transfer the mark to?"

The room fell silent. No one wanted to make the choice, as every option was terrible. Each choice left someone dead, or the world in question. 

"Are you sure these are our only choices?" Sam asked. "We don't have a fourth miraculously amazing option? How much do we even know about this Darkness? Does it really exist, or is it just a legend?"

Hermione shrugged. "I honestly haven't a clue. Every book mentions this symbol’s ties to The Darkness, they're all in agreement with that. As far as it existing, I'm not an expert on that. I figured since you two are best friends with an angel, maybe you would know."

"Cas!" Dean and Sam shouted at the same time.

"We need to call him," Sam said.

Dean had his phone out and was dialing. "Already on it," he said, holding his phone up to his ear. "Cas? Hey, it's Dean. We need your help. Yeah, it's about the Mark. How soon can you get here? No, I understand. Think you can meet us in Boston in a couple days? Great. See you then," he hung up the phone. "He's trying to get Claire and Amelia settled into their new apartment. He'll meet us in Boston once we're done with this case."

"Well, then I say we put all these books away, and not worry about the Mark until then. We'll focus on the case here in town to keep our minds off of it. And until we meet with Cas, we'll have to agree to try not to ponder our bleak choices, agreed?" Hermione said.

The brothers nodded.

"Great, let's eat, and Sam, you can tell us what you found out at the crime scene," Hermione said, starting to gather all the books up.

"Well, I'm almost totally convinced that we are dealing with a vengeful spirit," Sam said, helping Hermione gather the books up and put them back in her beaded bag.

"Yeah, what makes you say that?" Dean asked.

"Well, when I got to Charles' house the place reeked of guilt. The guy had a room full of newspaper articles about some guy who was killed in a hit and run accident three months ago. I went out to the garage to look at the car, and the bumper had been touched up with paint that did not quite match the paint on the car, so I'm guessing Charles is the one to have killed the guy, and was feeling guilty about it, and the murderer is the guy he murdered," Sam explained.

"How do you know it was a spirit that killed Charles, and not some home invader?" Hermione asked, as the three of them sat down around the now clear table and began passing food around.

"When we talked to the Sheriff earlier he said that they found Charles' body in a locked house, which showed no signs of forced entry," Dean said.

"Cause of death?" Hermione asked.

"Stabbed in the back with a kitchen knife," Sam said.

"Okay, vengeful spirit it is then. How do you get rid of a vengeful spirit? They're already dead."

"Step one, find the grave and salt and burn the bones," Dean said.

"And, step two?"

"If that doesn't work we find an object tied to the deceased and salt and burn that," Sam said. 

"Sounds easy enough," Hermione said.

"It is, that's why I chose this case. It's pretty open and close as far as cases go. You get a name of that hit and run vic?" 

"Yeah, um, Fred Jones," Sam said.

"Excellent. This town is small enough that it should have only one cemetery, so we should be able to take care of this tonight and then get on the road."

"So, we're going to go dig up a grave tonight?"

"Sounds fun, doesn't it Glinda? I bet you've never had this much excitement before," Dean teased.

"Not for many years," she replied, before digging into her meal, preparing herself before she went to desecrate the final resting place of a murdered man.


	14. Chapter 14

"We should have researched before driving all the way down here," Hermione said.

The three of them had finished their meal and driven down to the local cemetery. It took a little while, but they were able to finally find the grave of Fred Jones. Or the wall vault to be more specific.

"Yeah, we really should have," Sam said, staring at the little block with Fred Jones' name engraved on it. 

"So, what do you do if the body has already been burned?" Hermione asked.

"Step 2," Dean answered. "So much for an open and shut case."

"So, do we look for the object at Fred's or Charles' place?" Hermione asked, as they headed back to the Impala. 

"Well, now we get to go question people who knew Fred and see if there was something significant of his, something that meant a lot to him that his spirit could have tied to. And then we go to Charles' and look for it, because if he's tied to the object, then he can't go anywhere without that object, so it's somewhere in Charles' house," Sam explained. 

"But we have no way of knowing what it is, without talking to people, otherwise it's just a needle in the haystack ordeal," Dean finished.

"So, we're at a standstill until tomorrow," Hermione said.

"Yeah, we'll need to just go back to the motel and get some sleep; we can start questioning Fred's family and friends tomorrow."

The drive back to the motel was silent, everyone pondering over what they'd learned during the day; particularly about the decision they were going to have to eventually make about the Mark and its removal. When they got back to the hotel, they took turns changing in the tiny bathroom before Sam and Hermione took the beds and Dean arranged the chairs into a makeshift bed for himself. They were out in minutes.

"No!" Hermione screamed into the dark and silent motel room. 

Dean and Sam sat up with a start, the latter flipping on the bedside lamp, illuminating the room. The brothers looked at each other before looking over at the witch. She was still sleeping, thrashing around in her bed.

"No, please, it's a fake!" she screamed out again.

Dean got up off of his chair bed and rushed over to Hermione's side. "Should we wake her?"

"Yeah, probably," Sam said, still sitting in his bed. 

Dean reached over and gently shook her, "Hermione?" he said quietly.

She sprung up in the bed, wide awake, gasping, looking frantically around the room, tears openly falling down her face. 

"Hey, you're okay," Dean said, quietly next to her. "It was just a dream."

Hermione brought her hands to her face, still shaking. Dean looked over his shoulder at Sam, who just gave him a small nod. He moved so that he was beside Hermione in the bed, and put her arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him. She melted into his side and began to sob in earnest. Dean just sat there, rubbing her arm gently, trying to bring her some sort of comfort. 

Sam stood up and grabbed his shirt from where he had thrown it on the floor before he grabbed a chair, dragging it closer to Hermione's bed.

After a few minutes her sobs subsided and she sat up, wiping her eyes with her hands, and pulling away from Dean. "I'm so sorry you guys," she said, with shuddering breaths.

"You don't have to apologize. We all get nightmares," Dean said.

"It's been a while since I've had that particular one," she said quietly. "I think all the talk about murder and spirits and darkness has drug up some things that are still with me after all these years."

"You get these nightmares often?" Sam asked.

"After the war, every night. But Ron and I worked through a lot of it, and I saw a Muggle therapist, so I thought I was doing really well. The nightmares subsided and then I only got them once a month or so. They were part of the stress on my marriage. Ron felt that he wasn't doing a good enough job at taking care of me if I still dreamt of that time in the manor; he always blamed himself for not fighting back more, for not saving me. After the divorce and my move, the nightmares only show up every once in a while and usually when I'm under a lot of stress. I'm surprised they waited this long to come back."

"What are they about?" Dean asked. "Would it help if you talked about it?"

"The manor," Sam said. "It's your torture, isn't it? From the war?"

Hermione nodded. She picked up her wand from the bedside table and waved it over her arm. A deep purple scar appeared on her left arm. She held it up for the brothers to see the word carved there.

"Mudblood," Dean said. "What does that mean?"

"Dirty blood," Hermione said. "During the war we were captured and taken to the headquarters of the Dark Lord. I was carrying an artifact that carried much significance to the war effort and one that a pureblood witch who worked for the Dark Lord had been tasked in protecting. She kept me behind and sent the boys to the dungeons. She tortured me. Used some spells on me, the ones that left me with the inability to have children, and when I still wouldn't talk, she pulled out a cursed blade and carved this into my arm. Forever marking me as the lesser being that I am."

Sam stood up from his chair, and grabbed his coat from the chair, and the keys to the Impala. 

"Where are you going?" Dean asked.

"I'm angry, and I know that this whole thing was in the past, but I’m still angry, and I need to go for a drive to cool down. I'll be back in a little bit. With beer." He didn't wait for a response, he stormed through the door, slamming it behind him. 

Dean shook his head and turned to Hermione. She was still visibly upset. 

"I didn't mean to make him upset. I thought he knew. He read the book," she said quietly.

"Yeah, I don't think he's upset about the scars or the nightmares, I think he's more upset about other things," he said, gesturing between the two of them.

Hermione sighed, running her hands through her hair, tangling it up a bit more than it already was. "This whole situation is fucked up."

"Yes, it is. And that's okay. You don't need to be worrying about any of that. The important thing right now is that you're going to be alright."

Hermione nodded. "I'll be fine. Like I said, it was a long time ago. And I guess dealing with trying to remove your mark reminded me of my own, and that's finally drudged up the nightmares I thought were long gone."

"Can I see it again? If you don't mind?"

Hermione reluctantly brought her arm down, and straightened it out. Dean reached over, softly brushing his fingers over the raised purple letters carved there. 

"It doesn't look like it healed very well," Dean said quietly.

"A cursed blade was used, so that's the best it could do. I have a scar across my chest from a curse that was cast on me in my fifth year, and since it was Dark Magic, it's also healed about as well as this."

Dean continued moving his fingers over the scar. "How come we've never seen this in all the time we've been working with you? You've worn short sleeves a lot, but I've never noticed this. And this is something that is not easily missed."

"Glamour charm," Hermione said. "I keep it hidden. I almost never go without it."

Dean shifted and stretched his arm out next to hers so that they were touching and both of their forearms were showing. "I wish you had told me sooner. We're practically twins."

Hermione smiled. "Yeah, but I think yours looks a little bit cooler."

"Yeah, I mean you just have letters, I have this cool symbol."

Hermione ran her fingers softly over Dean's mark. He shivered at the touch.

"They do have one thing in common. They were both touched with Dark Magic."

Dean closed his eyes, as Hermione kept her hand softly over the Mark. "Look at that, Glinda, we finally have something common."

"I guess we do," she whispered next to him. 

Dean opened his eyes, and found himself gazing into the soft brown eyes of Hermione looking up at him. He fought his instincts for a split second before saying a silent apology to Sam, and capturing Hermione's lips with his own. 

Hermione gasped, and Dean took advantage and deepened the kiss. This time Hermione didn't even resist. She returned the kiss feverishly, wrapping her arms around Dean's neck, pulling herself as close to him as possible. Dean wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tight, his hands caressing her back. He brought his hands down to her ass, gripping it. Hermione let out a moan, encouraging him to pull her until she moved to straddle his waist. His cock, which was at full attention, got even more excited to feel the warmth of her core as it settled against him. He pressed against her and even through his jeans, he could feel just how aroused he was making her through this make out session.

Dean shifted his hips, pressing into her. Hermione gasped and then moaned before pressing back. The two settled quickly into a slow, steady rhythm, moaning through their kisses. Dean brought one hand up, cupping Hermione's breast through the shirt she was wearing. He massaged and pinched, relishing in the sounds that Hermione was making. He couldn't stand it much longer, but he knew Sam could be back any moment, so full on fucking was not an option. He moved his hands down to her hips and began pulling her against him more frantically, moving his lips down the side of her neck, sucking on her pressure point. Hermione began moaning louder, and bucking more erratically against him. He was close, but he wanted to make sure she got off first, so he moved one of his hands off her hip and to the front of her shorts before pushing inside and finding her clit and giving it a couple good rubs. 

"Oh, God, Dean," Hermione called out as she came. Dean brought his fingers to his mouth tasting her, and after a couple more bucks of his hips he, too, came in his pants. 

The two sat together, not moving, breathing heavily. Dean brought his hands up to Hermione's face, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. He pressed a gentle kiss onto her lips, which she returned.

"Dean?" she said, after they pulled back.

"Yeah?" he said.

"We can't let Sam find out anything about this."

"I agree. I totally agree."


	15. Chapter 15

By the time Sam walked back into the room, Hermione and Dean had cleaned themselves up and were sitting in separate locations. Sam looked between them, and shook his head, before setting the six pack he had picked up at the local gas station down on the table. He pulled out a bottle before sinking down into a chair and kicking his feet up on the table. He looked over at Hermione.

"Are you doing okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I am. I’m sorry. I think I've kind of ruined our chances of sleep for the night."

"Don't worry about it," Sam said. "As long as you're okay, it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, I'm good. Hopefully that got it out of my system, and I'll be fine for a while."

"I'm sorry I kinda freaked out on you back there. I don't know why I was so mad; it's not like I didn't know; I read about it in Hogwarts: A History. But I guess there's a difference between reading that your friend was tortured in her teens and seeing the physical evidence of it," Sam explained.

"Yeah, no, it's okay, I completely understand. Just know that the woman who did this to me is long dead, and can't hurt me anymore. That was something Ron couldn't wrap around his head. He blamed all Death Eaters, especially if they were present in the room when it happened. For the longest time he couldn't be in the same room as Draco Malfoy, the nephew of the woman who did this to me, without throwing a punch."

"Sounds like a winner this ex of yours," Dean said from his spot on the other bed, where he was texting someone on his phone.

"Who're you texting?" Sam asked.

"Cas," Dean said. "There was a message from him from earlier, must have come while we were sleeping. I was filling him in on what we found out on the Mark, and he just asked if we could meet him back at home instead of Boston. He said that it may be better to be somewhere with the right kind of research."

"Where's home?" Hermione asked. 

"Lebanon, Kansas," Sam said. "If you need to go home, you can, and we can take it from here. Cas is right, going back home, with all that research from the Men of Letters, may actually help us now that we know what we're looking for."

"But, you'll still need help, since the Mark is in fact an Ancient Rune," Hermione said. "Which is my area. I can go with you. I may have to apparate or Floo home every once in a while, but I can make it work. I'm too entrenched in this to quit now."

Dean looked up from his phone and locked eyes with her. She offered him a small smile, and he smiled back. 

"Great," he said. "I'll tell Cas that we'll head back to the bunker after we ice this ghost."

It only took them one more day to get rid of Fred Jones' spirit. Turned out that he had latched onto the car bumper that had been his cause of death. After a little tussle with his spirit, in which Hermione learned that swinging an iron bar at the non-corporeal form of a ghost slowed it down a bit, they torched the car, while still in the garage, thanks to Hermione being able to control the flames with her wand, and then they were on the road themselves for the long drive to Kansas. They didn't stop, the three of them taking turns driving, and they made it back to the bunker in record time.

"Wow," Hermione said, walking into the main room of the bunker. "This place is massive. And you said no one knows where this is?"

"Yeah, the Men of Letters kept this place pretty hidden," Sam said.

"Without magic?" Hermione said.

"As far as we know," Dean said, sitting down at the table in the war room.

"I can put up some extra wards, add some extra protections if you want," she offered.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, that would be great. But why don't you go get some rest first and then we can see about doing that. Here, let me show you your room," he said, leading her through the room.

Dean watched them go, before rubbing his face with his hands. Sleeping in the Impala was never the best sleep, but sleeping so close to Hermione after what they had done a few nights ago was rough. He could smell her shampoo on the seat when he had his turn to lay in the backseat and sleep, and he struggled with keeping an erection down the entire time, and didn't get to sleep at all. They still hadn't had a chance to talk, or fuck, whichever was fine with him, since then. Sam was always with them. He knew there was an attraction between his brother and the witch, but he was really hoping after the other night it was now a one-way attraction. He wasn't usually into competing with his brother, but fuck it if he didn't deserve something amazing after the shit year he's been having, and if he was going to have to die soon because the damn mark, he at least wanted to go out after having the comfort of a smart, beautiful woman in his bed. And if he was going to die, Sam could be around to comfort said smart, beautiful woman after he was gone.

"So, what did you guys find out, specifically?" Cas said from behind him, startling him.

"Damn it, Cas. Can you try to not give me a heart attack by sneaking up on me? We need to put a fucking bell on you."

"You need me to wear a bell? I don't understand why?"

"Damn it, Cas, just announce yourself before you're right behind me, okay?"

"Sure I can manage that. So in your messages you said you and the witch found something. What did you find?"

"Turns out this Mark in addition to being The Mark of Cain, has to do with something called The Darkness. What do you know about it?"

"I've heard of it. But everything I've heard is just rumors that have run through heaven for millenia. That God locked it up, and that's about it. It's a legend, Dean."

"Well, according to the books Hermione has, some people believe very strongly that it is not a rumor and that it is very much tied to this symbol."

"Did you find a way to remove the Mark?" Cas asked.

"Yeah, there are three ways. One, I can die. Two, there's a spell or ritual that can take the Mark off of me, but we need someone else to bind the Mark to because number three, if we remove the mark and there's no one to bear the mark, The Darkness is released out into the world doing who knows what to it."

"But the Darkness could just be a rumor," Cas said.

"Or it could be real, do we really want to take a chance like that?" Hermione spoke up as she came into the room.

"I thought you were sleeping?" Dean said.

"I couldn't sleep. I called Harry to update him where I was, and get him to try and get your fireplace hooked up to the Floo Network. He's probably going to apparate here soon to get it hooked up the rest of the way, so please don't shoot him."

"I will try not to," Dean said. "So, Cas, what should we do?"

"Let me go and start asking around Heaven what they know about the Darkness. There has to be someone up there who is old enough to verify if The Darkness is real or fiction. Hopefully they’ll forget their grudge against me and help us out."

"Until then, maybe we can rummage around here and see if the Men of Letters have anything about the Darkness in any of their files."

"Do you have a lot of files?" Hermione asked.

"Babe, just wait until you see the library," Dean said with a smirk.

Before she could reply, there was a loud pop that echoed through the bunker. Sam came running around the corner with his gun drawn.

"Don't worry," Hermione said, "That was the sound of apparition, remember? That's just Harry coming to hook the Floo up to the network."

The sound of footsteps could be heard through the hall as they approached. Hermione smiled as she saw the familiar messy black hair of her best friend, but that smile instantly fell when she saw who was with him.


	16. Chapter 16

"Ronald," Hermione said, standing up a bit straighter.

Behind her, Sam leaned around to make eye contact with Dean.

"Her ex," he mouthed, pointing at the red head.

Dean frowned, and turned his attention back to the three magical beings standing in his war room. 

"Hermione," Ron said. 

"What are you doing here?"

Ron shrugged. "I was visiting with Ginny and the boys when Harry came home to fill her in on your latest movements. When he said he was coming for a visit to hook up your new floo to the network, I decided to tag along and see for myself that you had mixed yourself up with a bunch of muggles. Imagine my surprise to see that you're staying with three blokes. Really, Hermione? Now you're not even trying to keep the press from talking. So which one have you let into your bed? Or is it all of them?"

Dean, Sam and Cas all straightened, and made a move toward the red head. Hermione held up her hand stopping them from progressing. 

"Ron!" Harry said. "You said that if you came along, you would be civil."

Ron shrugged. "I meant to, but seeing her here, and seeing with my own eyes proof of the slag she is, I can't hold back."

Dean could feel the anger in him boiling, and the Mark wasn't helping him keep it under control. "Listen, here," he started,but he didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before someone pushed past him and stormed up to the red head menace and landed a punch square across his jaw.

"Cas!" Hermione and Sam shouted in unison.

"Cas?" Dean asked confused.

The angel was shaking out his right hand. "Wow, that hurts."

Ron straightened up, rubbing his jaw. "You must be the one she's fucking."

"Ron!" Harry shouted.

"No, I'm not. I'm her friend. We all are. And I couldn't just stand around listening to you talk poorly of her any more. And punching you in the face was the most mild reaction I could think of. Believe me, you could be worse off," Cas said.

Ron laughed. "Really? Worse off? I'm sure you know that I'm a wizard, and you're a muggle. There's not much you can do to me that I can't just heal with a wave of my wand."

"For your information," Hermione spoke up. "He's not a muggle. He's an angel."

Ron laughed, but Harry turned toward the man in the khaki trenchcoat, his mouth open in awe. 

"Are you really an angel?"

Cas nodded.

"Do wizards go to, you know, heaven?" Harry asked.

Cas nodded. 

"I'm sure you don't know them, but my parents and my godfather...I...could you--"

"Next time I'm home, I'll see what I can find out," Cas replied. 

"Thank you," Harry said. He turned to Hermione. "Why didn't you tell me you were working with an actual angel?"

Hermione shrugged. "I haven't really had time to catch you up on everything I've been working on lately. We've been kind of constantly on the go. We just arrived here from Connecticut just an hour or so ago."

"What were you doing in Connecticut?" Harry asked. "Is that where you were when you asked me to feed your cat?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, we were there hunting a vengeful spirit who killed a man."

Harry got a wide grin on his face. "You just can't resist getting yourself mixed up with some crazy stuff."

"You know me, Harry," Hermione said. "It seems seventeen years is my limit to living a quiet life."

"Wait," Ron spoke up. "What are muggles doing hunting down ghosts?"

"We're hunters," Dean spoke up. "We hunt and kill supernatural beings. So I would be careful with how many times you decide to call Glinda here a whore, because you my friend are classified as a supernatural being, and I will not hesitate to rid this world of you."

"And you have no right to call Hermione anything. She told me about your breakup, and the short amount of time between you ending things with her and you coming around with your newly pregnant wife. And I can only draw one logical conclusion from those actions."

Dean turned toward Ron, his mouth open in mock surprise. "You ran around on, that? Man, if I had someone like her warming my bed every night, I wouldn't even think twice about fucking other women."

Ron rounded on Dean, stepping toe to toe with him. "You don't know anything. So why don't you shut your fucking mouth."

Dean leaned around Ron to look at Hermione. "Is Sammy right? Did this fucker cheat on you?"

Hermione shrugged. "I can't be sure. I don't have any proof. I just know that I signed the divorce papers, and within weeks he was introducing Lavender as his girlfriend and announcing she was preganant."

"Lavender? What the fuck kind of name is Lavender?" Dean said with a chuckle.

"That's my wife you're talking about there, mate, so I would be careful what you say, or I'll--"

"Or you'll what exactly? Turn me into a frog? Curse me? I would love to see you try."

"Dean," Hermione said. "It's not worth it. Please just stop egging him on."

"No," Dean said. "This ass comes walking into our home, and the first thing he does is insult you. I'm sorry. But you're not only our friend, but you're quickly becoming family, and we don't tolerate threats to our family, do we Sam?"

Sam shook his head, stepping next to Dean. "No, Dean, we do not."

Ron shook his head. "Family? How long have you known her? A week? Two? I've known her for twenty-four years, since we were eleven years old. Harry and me? We're her family. You three? Just the flavor of the week."

That was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for Dean. He started seeing red. He fought to keep his anger under control, but it was a losing battle. Tensely, he spit out. "Family? Really? You broke up with her. You cheated on her. Why?"

Ron got quiet, and looked the other way, refusing to answer.

"Yeah, Ron," Harry spoke up. "I've always wondered why. Neither of you have ever told me. I just accepted that you weren't together anymore, and since you're my brother in law, I looked the other way when you brought Lavender around. But all these years I wondered why you would cheat on Hermione."

Ron grew very interested in his shoes, and still remained quiet.

Sam turned to Hermione, putting a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. It was that tiny bit of support that gave Hermione the confidence she needed to tell the truth.

"It's because I can't have kids," Hermione said, quietly. She turned to Harry. "The Crucio that Bellatrix had me under did something to me. The Healers told me that I would never be able to have a baby. And while I was dealing with the devastation of that news, Ron decided he didn't want to be with someone who was 'defective,' his words, so he filed for divorce."

The room was silent. Harry was burning holes into the back of Ron's head. Sam had wrapped a comforting arm around Hermione's shoulders, pulling her close to him. Cas looked contemplative, staring at Hermione as if he were trying to figure out a puzzle. And Dean, he was seething. If he were a cartoon, steam would be coming out his ears, and fire out his nose with how angry he was.

"That's it?" Dean barked out. "That's why you left your wife? She was fucking tortured, leaving her permanently injured on top of the nightmares she was suffering from, and instead of supporting her through that trying time, you left her. For a new, working model."

Ron looked up at him. "You don't know anything. I loved Hermione more than anything. And all I wanted was to start a family with her. We had been together for twelve years, and we still couldn't start a family. I'm from a large family, and watching my brothers and my best mate have kids, and we weren't, that hurt. I thought she was purposely making it so that we wouldn't have kids. Her job was always important, and I thought she was putting it first. So I went out, and I ran into Lavender. And she was flirting with me, and it felt so nice to be number one for once, and so I fucked her. And she got pregnant. So, when Hermione found out she couldn't have kids, that was the perfect out. I wanted kids. She couldn't give them to me, Lavender was pregnant with one. Perfect."

It was Dean's turn to land a punch across Ron's face. In fact he was landing quite a few.

"Dean!" Sam shouted, grabbing onto Dean's back, but he was too far gone into the anger from the Mark to hear reason. 

Hermione pulled out her wand and silently cast on Dean, pulling him away from Ron, and landing him in a chair, tying him down with ropes. 

"Dean, you need to calm down, and fight through the anger," Hermione said.

Ron jumped up from the floor, running his wand across his face, healing the wounds. "Fuck Hermione. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

Before she could answer, Harry spoke up. "Shut up, Ron. It's none of your business."

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed.

"No," Harry said, holding his hand up. "I'm so tired of listening to you. And to finally hear the truth, I can't even stand to look at you."

"Harry, mate, you're my best friend, my brother," Ron said.

"I can't change the fact that you're my brother, but right now, I don't know if I want to call you my best friend. Leaving Hermione because she can't have kids? That's low mate. Real low. I don't want you coming by the hosue for a while."

"Harry!"

"You need to leave before I let these men do their worst," Harry growled out. 

"You're going to side with her?" Ron said, pointing at Hermione. 

"I am," Harry said. "And I should have pushed her for more information five years ago when she was driven out of town by you and the Prophet. How could you let the Prophet write all those things about her, Ron? You could have stood up for her. Set the story straight. If not through the Prophet, through the Quibbler."

Ron shrugged. "Honestly? Once I was with Lavender, I didn't really care about anything else. I was getting everything I wanted. I really wasn't paying attention to anything else. I had my family to think of."

"Hermione was your family!" Sam shouted. "How many other women did you sleep with before Lavender?" 

"What?" Ron asked.

"There had to be others, or else it wouldn't have been so easy to toss Hermione out like you did."

Ron's face turned red, and he looked to the ground. 

That was enough for Sam and Harry to both see red. They both rushed toward Ron, but they were stopped when Cas stepped between them. Once Cas was certain Sam and Harry weren't going to rush Ron, he kept walking forward toward Hermione.

He stopped in front of her, cupping her face in his hands, looking reverently into her eyes, which were rapidly filling with tears. He rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs before bringing one hand down, and gently pressing it against her lower abodomen. He closed his eyes, and his hand and her abdomen glowed with a quick flash of white. Hermione looked down at where Cas's hand sat, and then back up at Cas, who had opened his eyes. She looked at him questioningly, and all he did was give a small nod, and Hermione started openly sobbing, her knees giving out from under her. Before she could fall to the ground, Cas wrapped his arms around her, bringing the two of them down to the ground, and he held her while she cried.


	17. Chapter 17

While everyone was distracted by whatever the angel did to Hermione, Ron apparated out of the bunker and home. He didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary, with four men who wanted to hurt him in one room. He was going to put in for a vacation with George, and take Lavender and Hugo on vacation somewhere until he was sure Harry's anger, and Ginny's once she was filled in, died down. And he would make sure to stay clear of Hermione for a while at family events. She was surrounded by lots of crazy men, and he didn't want to invoke more of their wrath on him. Although he was pretty sure those hunters knew how to hold a grudge, especially the one Hermione had to tie down, so he was definitely going to steer clear of Hermione and her new "family." 

Harry didn't even look up from where Hermione and the angel were sitting on the floor when his brother-in-law apparated. "What did he do to her?" he asked to no one in particular. 

"He healed her," the tall one, Sam he thought his name was, answered. "Angels can do that."

"So, she can have kids now?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, that's what I'm guessing."

"Does he just go around healing people?" Harry asked. "Is that what he does?"

Sam shook his head. "No, he only does it for people who are important to him."

"And Hermione is important to him?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "She's helped us out greatly since we've known her. I think Cas is repaying her for that kindness."

Harry walked over to where his friend and the angel were, and knelt down next to them. He placed his hand on the angel's shoulder. "Thank you," he said.

Cas nodded, and opened his arms, and backed away so that Harry could take his place. Harry held his best friend and sister in his arms, and squeezed her tightly.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I should have pressed more. I should have spoken up. I should have done something more than I did. Instead I let him drive you away, out of the country."

"It's okay, Harry," Hermione said. "I never blamed you. There's nothing you could have done to make me change my mind. I needed to get away. I couldn't be there with Ron and Lavender flaunting their new relationship and family all over London. It just hurt too much. I only meant to get away for a little bit, but I enjoyed living outside of the scrutiny and lime light; I liked the anonymity. I was sad that I had to live so far from you and Ginny and the boys, but I'm happy that we're wizards, because magic keeps us close."

"I love you," Harry said. 

"I love you, too," Hermione returned.

"This whole episode with Ron isn't going to keep you away once the new baby is born will it? Because Ginny will probably castrate Ron if the baby's godmother won't come and visit."

"It would take a lot more than Ron running his mouth to keep me away from my goddaughter," Hermione said with a smile.

"Goddaughter, eh?" Harry said. "What makes you so sure that this next one is a girl?"

"For Ginny's sake, I'm hoping it's a girl," Hermione laughed.

Harry laughed. "James and Albus are quite the handful," he admitted.

"That’s an understatement," she said.

"You'll be careful with whatever it is that you're doing here, won't you? I know you can take care of yourself, and you're built for the adventure, just, be careful, yeah?"

Hermione nodded. "I'll be careful."

Harry gave her a tight squeeze and placed a kiss on the top of her head, before helping her up from the floor. "Well, let me go do my magic on that Floo, and I'll be out of your hair, yeah?"

He didn't even wait for a reply from anyone in the room before walking in the direction he assumed the Floo would be. He was sure he would be able to find it.

Sam walked over to Hermione and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Hermione nodded. "I'll be fine. So, that's my ex," she said, trying to break the tension in the room.

"Great guy, we should hang out more," Dean snarked from where he was tied to the chair. "Can you untie me now? Now that the idiot is gone I'm fine."

Hermione flicked her wand causing the ropes to disappear and Dean was free to get up. He stretched, and then walked over to join Sam and Hermione, wo had turned to talk to Castiel.

"I don't even know how to even begin to thank you," she said.

Cas shook his head. "There's no need to thank me. You've been through so much in your young life, all in the name of good, and you helped us and you didn't even know us. It's the least I can do."

Hermione just shook her head and smiled. "Well, thank you anyway, and I owe you one. Whatever, whenever, just ask."

"I will keep that in mind," Cas said. "Dean has filled me in about what you have found about his mark. I'm going to travel to Heaven and see what I can find out about the Darkness up there. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Be careful up there," Dean said. "I know you're not the most popular angel on the cloud right now. Watch your back."

Cas nodded. "I will. I have an ally in Hannah up there; I'll make sure we stay close. You guys look in the Men of Letter's library and see if they have any mention of the Darkness in any of their papers. When I return we can compare notes and decide what the best course of action will be." Cas, like Harry, didn't wait for a reply and promptly left the room. 

The three left in the room stood in silence for a minute. Hermione letting out a large yawn broke the silence.

"Alright, now, I'm tired," she said.

"I think we all are," Sam said. "It's been a long few days. What do you say we all go lie down for an hour and then meet up back here and we can start working our way through all of the stuff the Men of Letters have in their library and see if we can find anything?"

Hermione nodded. "That sounds great. If I don't join you in an hour come get me, I may be too out of it to hear my alarm."

"If you don't get up that's fine, you need your rest," Sam said.

"No, I want to be there for the whole documents thing. I'm very curious to see what these Men of Letters have in their library. If I weren't so exhausted, I would be in that room right now."

Sam smiled. "Go, rest," he said. "See you in an hour, no sooner."

Hermione mock saluted him. "Yes, sir," she said with a smile. She walked off to her room, her hand resting on her abdomen the whole time. 

Sam turned to Dean. "You okay? You kinda lost it back there."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. All that anger I had completely disappeared once that ass left. I will say most of my anger did not come from that Mark. I'm pretty sure I would have attacked him regardless of the Mark."

Sam nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I was two seconds from punching his smug face as well."

"Did you see Cas?" Dean said, his face lighting up.

"Yes! Who would have thought he would be the first of the three of us to punch him? I thought for sure that honor would go to you."

"It would’ve, if Cas hadn't gotten there first. Man, I really hope that he was a better person when Hermione married him, because right now I can't imagine any universe where the woman who's been helping us for the last month would choose whatever the hell he is."

Sam shrugged. "They were young when they got together. Eighteen. Think back to when you were eighteen. You were a completely different person. It was before you spent time in Hell, before you became a full time hunter, before we experienced everything we experienced. I'm sure whatever girlfriend you had at eighteen wouldn't choose who you are now."

"Eighteen. I can't imagine picking someone to spend the rest of my life with so young," Dean said.

Sam chuckled. "Dean, you can't imagine picking someone to spend the rest of you life with now."

Dean gave a small smile and looked in the direction Hermione had walked off in. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said, quietly.


	18. Chapter 18

Hermione lay in the bed in the room Sam had shown her to, staring at the ceiling. Her alarm had gone off five minutes ago, but she was having a hard time getting out of the bed. After missing sleep in the motel, and then sleeping in the back seat of the Impala, the bed felt like heaven. Plus, her brain was working overtime with the events of the last few days. So much had happened in so little time that she hadn't had much time to stop and think about what was happening. 

Her hand moved instinctively down to her lower abdomen. She couldn't believe that Cas healed her. In the blink of an eye she went from never being able to have children to being able to. Since the moment about magic when she was eleven years old, she had seen so many impossible things she would have believed there was nothing else to learn. But since the moment she met Cas and the Winchesters she'd been learning so many new things about the supernatural that she hadn’t known existed. She prided herself in knowing everything she could possibly know about anything she could get her hands on, but the fact that spirits could kill? That angels existed? Whatever the hell the Darkness was? All new to her. And she was sure she was just scratching the surface. She knew that Dean and Sam had been hunting full time for ten years now, but she almost had no idea what any of their experiences were. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out either. 

She closed her eyes as she thought of Dean, bearing the Mark of Cain, and suffering through the unmanageable anger. She had to wonder what was going on in the brothers’ lives that pushed him to get the mark in the first place. She thought that in the fight to rid the world of Voldemort she, Harry, and Ron had made hard choices and sacrifices. But Dean chose to take on a mark he didn't know anything about. For what? He must have known it was cursed somehow, but he still chose to take it on. She looked down at her own cursed mark. While not on the same level as Dean's, she had to agree with his observation that night after her nightmare. They had one thing in common. They each bore the marks of a curse. 

She felt herself grow red at the thought of that night. She had no idea what came over her. She could barely stand Dean at the best of times but twice now, when she was left alone with him, things got physical. It was like there was something invisible pulling her to him that she couldn't resist. She knew that a lot of his confrontational personality that she'd seen was influenced by the Mark and that made her wonder what he was like without it. Was he more like Sam? Sam. The thought of him made her feel guilty about what she had done with Dean. They were supposed to step back and wait until after they dealt with the Mark before doing anything. And she had gone and practically had sex with his brother. Maybe the Prophet and Ron were right. She was a whore. 

She thought about Sam. The two of them had so much in common. They were both intellectuals, they were both well read, and they enjoyed doing research. He was so sweet and nice, and he was very level headed. Plus, he was very, very attractive. Logically on paper, the two of them were perfect. And that kiss they shared in her flat was amazing. It had been a long time since she had felt anything like that. Anything, except for when she was kissing his brother. Who she felt she had nothing in common with. He was rash and went headlong into danger without much thought. He was the quintessential bad boy, the total opposite of what she normally went for. The two of them had clashed more than they got along. It was crazy to think about, the fact that her first sexual encounter in years was with a man who she wanted to hex more than hug. How could two men, completely different from each other be so completely attractive to her?

She groaned and rubbed her face with her hands. The only solution was to stick with what she and Sam had decided after their shared kiss in her flat. No romantic entanglements until after they take care of the mark on Dean's arm. It was the only thing that was fair. And since they were not very close to figuring out what to do with that, she had plenty of time to sort out her feelings. And in order to do that, she and Dean should not be left alone together for very long because apparently they could not be trusted to keep their hands to themselves when left alone. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Sam tossed a pile of paper he found in a box on top of one of the filing cabinets in the Men of Letter's library onto the table between he and Dean.

"What's this?" Dean asked.

"These are the most recent Men of Letter's papers. Apparently, when Abadon killed everyone and the Men of Letter's dispersed, they didn't take the time to file away their most recent findings. So, we're going to start here."

"Wouldn't it be easier to go through the files, under 'D'?" Dean asked.

"Tried that," Sam said. "After I led Hermione to her room, I came in here, and unfortunately there are no files that are specifically for The Darkness. So we need to start going through everything to see if there's any mention of it."

Dean put his head on the table. "We've been through most of that crap in these cabinets and the books on the shelves when looking for information about the Mark. You're saying we have to do it all again?"

Sam nodded. "Unfortunately. When we went through everything we were looking for specific references to "The Mark of Cain." Now we have to go through the same books and files and look for references to The Darkness."

"This sucks," Dean said. 

"Yeah, sorry," Sam said. 

Hermione walked into the room, stopping short and looking around in awe. "Now, this is a library."

"Pull up a seat, Glinda, we have a lot of reading ahead of us," Dean said. 

"Do we know where to start?" Hermione said, sitting in the chair between Sam and Dean. 

Sam waved his hand over the stack of papers. "Pick an account."

"Really?" she said. 

"Yep," Sam said. 

She reached up and grabbed a stack of papers. "Are we looking for just mentions of The Darkness or are we looking for anything about the mark in general?"

"The Darkness," Sam said. "We've been through all of this before about The Mark."

Hermione nodded before looking down and focusing on the papers in front of her. Dean sighed and grabbed his own stack, Sam doing the same.

The trio sat and read in silence for a long time. Hermione wasn't sure how long, there were no clocks in the room, and she didn't want to take the time to retrieve her wand and cast a tempus charm to check. She just knew they weren't getting very far. They had almost completely gone through the papers that the Men of Letter's never got filed away or compiled into books. And so far they hadn't found any mention of the Darkness. She found a one off mention of the Mark, and she set that paper aside, but she couldn't find mentions of the Darkness. She began to wonder if she would need to go to Hogwarts and look through the Forbidden section. Maybe they would have more luck in a magical library than a muggle.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand touch her knee. She glanced to her right and Dean hadn't even looked up from what he was reading, but his left hand currently rested on her knee, absently drawing circles on her thigh. She took a deep breath and resolved to ignore it. If she didn't react, maybe he would give up and take his hand off of her. She looked back down at the paper in front of her, but found that she was having a hard time focusing on the reading, too focused on the warm hand on her leg. She moved her hand down and covered Dean's. His hand stopped moving and turned over. He laced his fingers with hers, still not looking up from what he was reading. She glanced at him through the corner of her eye and noticed that he had visibly relaxed a bit. She smiled, giving his hand a gentle squeeze before turning back to her own reading. If holding her hand would relax him then she would let him. And it didn't hurt that holding his hand back made her feel a little happier. She tried not to think about Sam, sitting on the other side of her, and how eventually she would have to confess to him that she may be falling for his brother a little more than she had anticipated.


	19. Chapter 19

"Guys, I've discovered something very important!"   
 

Sam, Dean, and Hermione jumped, Dean and Hermione dropping each other's hands in the process. Hermione pressed her hands to her chest, feeling her heart jack hammering in her chest. 

 

"What the fuck, Cas!" Dean shouted. "We've been over this. Announce yourself!" 

 

"Sorry," Cas said, moving the rest of the way into the room. 

 

"A bell, we need to attach a bell around your neck," Sam said. 

 

"Dean said that same thing earlier!" Cas said. "I still don't understand the reference." 

 

"What did you find?" Hermione asked.  

 

"I know who we need to talk to," Cas said. 

 

"Who?" 

 

"Death," Cas said. "I asked around and no one seemed to be aware whether or not the Darkness was fictional. And then it hit me. Who else has been around since the beginning other than Death?" 

 

"That's brilliant, Cas," Hermione said. "How do you talk to Death?" 

 

Sam turned to Hermione. "This doesn't surprise you? Evil ghosts surprise you but the fact that you can talk to Death, just another day?" 

 

"We have a story in the Wizarding World about three brothers who beat death, and Death rewarded them three objects. At first I thought it was just a story but then, during the war, Harry came into possession of all three objects. I've accepted that Death was a physical being after that." 

 

"What objects?" Dean asked. "What did they do?" 

 

"I'll tell you another time. Or you can just read the story. I have my translation of the original runic version here with me." 

 

"I'll just wait until you're ready to tell me, thank you," Dean said. "I don't know if I want to read anything else for a very long time," he turned to Cas. "So, what you're telling me is we need to summon Death." 

 

"Yes," Cas said. "He's our best bet. The only other person I could think of who would know something would be Lucifer, and--" 

 

"He's in a pit in Hell," Sam finished.  

 

"So, what are we waiting for?" Dean asked. "Let's go into 7B and have ourselves a little ritual." 

 

"What's so special about 7B?" Hermione asked.  

 

"We have a large Devil's Trap painted on the floor in there. That's usually where we do our summoning," Sam explained. 

 

Hermione nodded. "Makes sense, I guess," she said, following the men out of the room. 

 

 They walked into the room and shut the door. The three men went about putting a bunch of stuff, she couldn't tell what, into a bowl, along with a few drops of blood, and then setting it on fire. While it burned, they said something in Latin. When they were finished, nothing happened. 

 

"Is that it?" Hermione asked.  "Is he here now?" 

 

"We just need to wait a few minutes," Cas explained.  

 

And sure enough after about a minute a tall, middle aged, wiry man appeared in the room with them.  

 

"Winchesters, Castiel, it's been a while," the man greeted. He turned to Hermione. "Ah, and Ms. Granger, I've always wanted to meet you." 

 

"How do you know who I am?" Hermione asked. 

 

"I'm Death. I know everyone. I especially know the people who have had contact with anything of mine. I will have to say, I was a bit upset when your friend Mr. Potter just left my stone on the Forbidden Forrest's floor. You would think the boy would be a bit less careless with such a powerful item." 

 

"Well, he was walking to what he thought was his death, so you'll have to forgive him," Hermione said. 

 

"Touche," Death replied. "What can I do for you? Is there a reason you brought me to this dank, dark, room?" 

 

"We wanted to talk to you about this," Dean said, rolling his sleeve up to reveal the Mark. 

 

"Ah, yes, the Mark of Cain. What do you want to know?" 

 

"We've learned that the Mark is tied to The Darkness. What can you tell us?" 

 

"Before there was light, before there was God and the archangels there wasn't nothing, there was the Darkness. A horribly destructive amoral force that was beaten back by God and his archangels in a terrible war. God locked the Darkness away where it could do no harm, and he created a Mark that would serve as both lock and key, which he entrusted to his most valued lieutenant -- Lucifer. But the Mark began to assert its own will, revealed itself as a curse and began to corrupt. Lucifer became jealous of man, God banished Lucifer to Hell, Lucifer passed the Mark to Cain, who passed the Mark to you -- the proverbial finger in the dyke.**" Death said, drolly. 

 

Silence fell over the small room, everyone looking to each other. Not wanting to say anything.  

 

Dean was the first person to speak up. "How certain are you that if we were to remove this Mark and not bind it to someone that this Darkness will come and wreak havoc on this world?" 

 

"I am one hundred percent certain," Death said. "And those are odds I wouldn't want to gamble with. I can solve your problem, Dean. If you're worried about hurting people, killing, I can take you somewhere. Somewhere far from everyone you love, to a place so desolate that you will never hurt anyone." 

 

"But?" Dean asked.  

 

"But it will come with a price," Death said. 

 

"What price?" Sam asked.  

 

"I will require you to kill your brother," Death said, matter of factly. 

 

"What?" Sam said. 

 

"Sam, you are notorious for trying to bring your brother back from the dead, or wherever he has been placed. I can't have that. I need you out of the picture, if you want to keep the world safe from your brother," Death replied.  

 

"Absolutely not," Dean said. "I won't kill my brother. And I won't tie this mark to anyone else." 

 

"So, I see you've made your choice," Death said. 

 

"What choice?" Hermione asked. "I seem to have missed the part where a choice was made. Because right now I think we're at an impasse." 

 

"Oh, my dear, but Dean did make a choice. Pretty similar to the one that your friend Harry made during that final battle." 

 

The color drained from Hermione's face. "No," she said, shaking her head. 

 

"Ah, I see you've figured it out," Death said. 

 

Hermione turned to Dean. "Dean, you can't sacrifice yourself. We'll figure this out." 

 

"How?" Dean asked. "I honestly don't see any other choice." 

 

"You're wrong. We'll figure this out," Hermione said. She turned to Death. "Give us a week. We'll figure this out. If we can't in a week, then you can come back and solve this once and for all." 

 

"Deal," Death said, without hesitation. He turned to the Winchesters. "You have one week. I know how this will end, I look forward to collecting one of you." And with that Death disappeared.  

 

Dean turned to Hermione. "What are you doing? We can't solve this in a week!" he shouted.  

 

"Yes, we can," she said. "I know we can."  

 

"How can you be so sure?" Sam asked from behind her.  

 

"Because we have magic on our side. I will figure this out. Give me a couple days.  Don't do anything stupid or rash until I get back," she said.  

 

"Where are you going?" Dean asked. 

 

"Hogwarts."  

 

****Quoted directly from Season 10, Episode 23**


	20. Chapter 20

Three days had passed and Dean and Sam hadn't heard anything from Hermione. They had continued to dig through the files and books the Men of Letters had in their library but they hadn't found anything. Their only information about the Darkness came from the information Death had given them days before. 

"Anything?" Dean asked Sam.

"Nothing. I don't think Hogwarts gets cell reception," Sam said, hanging up. "Dean, it's been three days. Our time is almost up. What are we going to do?"

"When the week is up, and Hermione isn't back, we'll say our goodbyes, and I'll have Death kill me."

"But without someone to tether to, the Mark--"

"Will probably be passed to someone Death chooses. So don't volunteer," Dean said.

Sam sighed, running his hands through his hair. "There has to be a better way than this."

"If there is, Hermione is going to be the one to find it," Dean said.

"She has four days," Sam said. "Think she'll find it by then?"

Dean shrugged. "No clue. I don't even know what she's looking for. But if anyone is going to find something, it would be her."

"Where's Cas?" Sam asked.

"He went back up to Heaven to ask some more questions. Or bone Hannah. Or both, who knows. He doesn't believe Death. He wants to make doubly sure that these are our only options."

There was a huge crack that came from the war room. The brothers leapt up from their chairs and ran out to see Hermione standing in the same clothes she had left in, her hair was so frizzy that it could have its own timezone. She looked like she hadn't slept since she left. She was standing in the middle of the room and she looked like she was about to pass out.

"Hermione!" Dean called out, rushing over to her, wrapping his arms around her. She leaned against him closing her eyes, breathing in deeply.

"I don't recommend international apparition on so little sleep," she murmured.

"We've been calling you," Sam said. "We weren't sure if you were going to make it back in time."

"Muggle items don't work inside Hogwarts," Hermione said. 

"Did you find anything about The Darkness?" Dean asked. 

She shook her head. "No, nothing. That Rune is all over the fucking place in the Forbidden section, but nothing about the Darkness."

"What'd you find out about the Rune?" Sam asked.

"That what we had read before isn't exactly accurate. That people would be marked with this rune, and it would summon a man who was cursed with the Mark, and the person marked would be killed. That's why there's no evidence of it being used on items. It was used exclusively for killing people."

"Did the books describe the person who came?" Sam asked.

"Middle aged, long graying hair and a gray beard," Hermione said.

"Cain," Sam and Dean said together. 

"I gave up on finding out any information about The Darkness after the first day. The last two days I've been working on this," she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small vial.

"What's that?" Dean asked.

"One of the steps to remove your Mark," Hermione said. 

"What?" Dean said. "We're not removing the Mark. I've already said I'm not passing it on to anyone else. I'm not going to make anyone else suffer like I have."

"I know," Hermione said. "I know. But when I was in England, Ron's brother, Bill, was there, and I found the ritual. He and I brewed the potion, and he taught me how to do the spell work. He even taught me how to bind it to someone, or something else."

"Wait, I thought you said the Rune wasn't used on objects?" Sam said.

"I did, but I never said anything about animals."

"Wait, let me get this straight," Dean said. "You want to bind this to an animal?"

Hermione nodded. "Why not? There's nothing in the texts that say it has to be carried by a man. Nothing. Death said someone needs to bear it in order for The Darkness to remain locked up. So why not put it on an animal? A small one. We don't need a wolf or something going around killing people."

"Hermione, you're amazing!" Sam said with a wide grin. He looked over at Dean, expecting him to be just as happy, but he was looking at Hermione skeptically.

"Are you sure this will work?" Dean asked. "That no one else will get the Mark, that this animal thing will work?

"I'm not one hundred percent certain, but I have a great feeling about it," Hermione said.

"Fine. We'll do it, but first, you need to rest. When was the last time you slept? Or showered?" Dean asked.

Hermione shrugged. "Since before I left?"

"Shower, sleep, and Sam and I will pull out a map and choose a remote location to take care of this. We don't want anyone getting hurt while we do this ritual," Dean said.

Hermione nodded. "Don't let me sleep too long." She and Dean shared a smile, before she turned and walked out in the direction of her bedroom.

"Are you sure about this?" Sam asked. "This is all very unknown. We don't know what the consequences will be."

"Sam, do you trust Hermione?"

"Yes," Sam answered without hesitation.

"So do I. And if she says she's figured it out, and with the help of another person who says they can help, then we need to trust her. She knows what she is doing."

The brothers walked over to the table with the map on it. 

"Where should we do this ritual?" Sam asked.

"Somewhere close, but also in the middle of nowhere." He studied the map for a minute before pointing at it. "How about here?"

"Superior, Nebraska," Sam said. "Looks like it's pretty remote. Let me look up its stats." He walked over and sat at the laptop. "Looks like it has a population of two thousand and has a nice large set of woods on the outskirts."

"Sounds perfect to me. We'll head there," Dean said. "We should get some rest, I want all three of us to be in complete working order before we go."

"I can get behind that," Sam said. He checked his watch. "It's eight o clock right now. How about we get fresh start with the sun in the morning?"

"I've never heard better words come out of your mouth before," Dean said. 

"Great, see you in the morning," Sam said, heading off for his room. 

Dean took a minute to turn off the lights in the war room before walking toward his room. He ran into Hermione on his way. She was nothing but an oversize t-shirt that fell to her knees, her hair wet curls hanging down her back. 

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. 

"No, it's okay, don't worry about it," Dean said. 

"Did you guys find a place?" she asked. 

"Yeah," he said. "Superior, Nebraska. We're going to head there in the morning, so you have the night to start catching up with sleep."

"That sounds super amazing," she said. "Well, I guess I'll just--"

"Yeah, sorry," Dean said. "You get to sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah," she said. "You, too." 

"Thanks," Dean said.

The two stood in the hallway, not moving for a second. As Hermione moved to leave, Dean reached out, cupping her face. He leaned down, placing a soft kiss on her lips. 

"Thank you," he said quietly. "For helping me. For figuring this all out."

"Well, I couldn't let you die," she said. "I needed to do something."

He leaned down, capturing her lips again, this time the kiss was hungrier. Hermione dropped the clothes she was holding, and wrapped her arms around Dean's neck, letting her hands play with the hair at the nape of his neck. This encouraged Dean and he wrapped his arms around her waist, settling his hands on her ass and lifting her up off the floor. Hermione's legs wrapped tightly around Dean's waist, as he moved them until he had her back pressed firmly against the wall. Dean moved his mouth down her neck, as Hermione let out a quiet moan, trying to remain conscious that they were in the middle of the hallway and Sam was in a room somewhere, sleeping.

Dean moved a hand up, cupping and pinching one of her breasts and Hermione bit her lip to stop from crying out. She felt herself grow wetter and wetter as Dean massaged her breast. She needed to feel some friction between her legs so she pressed herself against Dean, feeling him through his jeans. 

Dean moved his hand from her breast down between her legs. He pushed aside her panties, running a finger down her slit, entering her easily. Hermione cried out as Dean moved his finger in and out, using his thumb to rub her clit. 

"Dean," she breathed out. "I need more," she whispered.

Dean moved his head up from her neck, pressing his forehead against hers. "I don't have a condom on me, and I don't want to take a chance to put a baby in you," he replied. 

"I can cast a contraceptive charm," she said. "I just need my wand."

"Where is it?" he asked.

She nodded to the pile of clothes on the floor.

Dean looked at it. "Can you get it without me stopping?"

Hermione looked at her clothes, and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate around the feelings of pleasure coursing through her as Dean continued to pump his fingers inside of her. She said a nonverbal summoning charm, and her wand came flying to her. She pressed it against her belly and muttered the familiar charm she hadn't used in forever before dropping her wand back to the floor. "Done," she said, almost moaning. 

Dean smiled, capturing her lips in a searing kiss, not removing his hand from her. He twisted his fingers, and Hermione broke the kiss to cry out as he found that sweet spot inside of her. A couple more pumps of his finger and she was tightening around him, her body convulsing. Dean's smile turned to one of victory as he brought her through her orgasm.

As soon as she began to relax, Dean removed his hand, and undid his belt buckle and pulled down his fly. He pulled his pants down far enough to get his cock out and pulled her panties to the side again before bringing her down on him. They both let out moans as he filled her to the hilt. They pressed their foreheads together, breathing in each other's breath as they adjusted. Dean moved his hands to Hermione's hips, gripping her hard, as he began moving in and out of her warm tightness. He had to close his eyes and focus. It felt too good and it had been too long since the last time he had a woman. He wanted to make this last because if tomorrow went to pot, this could be the last time he had sex. He pushed the grim thoughts from his mind and focused on the woman he had pressed against the wall. He opened his eyes and looked at Hermione. Her head was thrown back against the wall, her eyes shut, her mouth open as he moved inside of her. She looked even more beautiful than he had ever seen before. He moved his mouth to her pulse point on her neck and sucked. 

"Dean, oh god," Hermione moaned out, grinding down on him. "Harder," she said.

Dean adjusted his grip on her, moving from her hips, up around her back, gripping onto her shoulders. He pressed against her, feeling her breasts press against his chest, and began fucking her in earnest. As he pumped in and out of her, he buried his nose in her freshly washed hair, inhaling her scent. He pressed his forehead aganist her shoulder, pressing soft kisses along the column of her neck. He could feel her walls starting to flutter, she was getting close. He lifted his head, and rubbed his nose against hers, picking his pace up just a little. He felt her tighten around his cock, and he immediately captured her mouth with his, making sure to catch her scream before it escaped, waking his brother. A couple more strokes and he followed her over the edge. 

As they both came down from their high, they stayed together, panting. Dean pulled back, moving his hands up to move the hair out of Hermione's face. 

"Wow," she whispered, trying to catch her breath.

"Yeah, was not planning on that happening," Dean said. 

Hermione smiled. "I'm glad it did."

"Me too," Dean said. "I better let you get some sleep though," he said.

"Yeah, you probably should." 

Dean reached down and put his now flaccid cock back into his pants, before backing away from the wall and letting Hermione slide to the ground. She adjusted her shirt until it fell back to her knees and bent down to pick up her wand, and her clothes. 

"I guess, I'll see you in the morning," Dean said, hesitating in the hallway.

"Yeah, I guess you will," Hermione said.

"Or," Dean started.

"Or?"

"Or you could come and stay with me tonight. Just sleeping," he said. "You know, just in case your nightmares come back."

Hermione smiled. "I would like that."

Dean returned her smile before putting his arm around her shoulder and leading her down the hall to his room and letting her inside. Neither of them noticed the figure stepping out of the shadows or hear as it moved to another room and shut the door.


	21. Chapter 21

"Is this it?" Hermione asked, as they pulled up to an abandoned restaurant that was at the edge of the woods.

"Yeah. This is the only building that doesn't currently run a business, and this is the only part of town where none of the population resides," Sam explained.

Hermione had woken up after the first deep, long sleep she had in weeks to find herself wrapped in Dean's arms. She smiled and tried to get up without waking him, but as soon as he felt her move, he was awake. He tightened his grip on her, peppering kisses up her neck. She rolled over until she was facing him, and the two had laid in bed, just holding each other for as long as they thought they could before they needed to get up. Hermione rushed back to her room to change and get what she needed for the day, before meeting Dean and Sam in the war room. Once she met up with them, they walked out to the garage and climbed into the Impala. Sam didn't say much as he climbed into the backseat, and he didn't talk the entire forty seven minute drive to Superior. Hermione wanted to ask what was wrong, but she was sure it had something to do with today. If she couldn't do what she needed to do, she was condemning Dean to the death. No pressure.

"Well," Hermione said. "Let's go in and get this started. The sooner we do this, the better."

The three climbed out of the Impala, and walked up to the front of the abandoned restaurant. Hermione pulled out her wand,muttered, "Alohamora," and the door flew open. The three trudged inside, closing the door behind them. 

Hermione walked over to a table and began taking things out of her beaded bag, preparing for the ritual. Sam was going to follow, but Dean held him back.

"Hey, man, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam said with a shrug, trying to walk toward Hermione. Dean held him back.

"Are you sure? Because you've hardly said two words all morning."

"I'm fine," Sam insisted, jerking away from Dean.

"See," Dean said. "This is what I'm talking about. I don't think you're fine."

"Well, we're about to do some ritual that may or may not lead to your death. Did you stop to think that maybe that's what's wrong with me?"

Dean shook his head. "No, that's not it. You won't look me in the eye, and you won't even talk to Hermione. What's going on?"

Sam stalked over to Dean until he was right in front of him. "I saw you," he whispered.

Dean was confused. "You saw me? Saw me where? We live together, Sammy, of course you saw me."

"I saw you and Hermione last night in the hallway," Sam said. 

The smile fell off of Dean's face. "Oh."

"Is that all you have to say for yourself? 'Oh?' What happened to waiting until this whole mess went away before we dealt with whatever it is between us and Hermione?"

"I tried," Dean said. "I don't know what it is, but I just can't stay away from her."

Sam frowned and closed his eyes. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long have you two been sleeping together?"

"Last night was the first time," Dean said. 

Sam glared at him. "Really?"

Dean held up his hand. "I swear. We didn't have sex until last night. But--"

"But?" 

"We did have an intense make out session that night after her nightmare."

Sam's frown deepened. "When I went out for the beer run?"

Dean nodded. "And there may have been some hand holding before she went off to Hogwhatever."

Sam shook his head. "I don't believe it. You knew that I had feelings for her. You knew that there was something between us that I wanted to see if there was anything, and yet, you still pursued her."

"Hey," Dean said. "Don't make this out like I acted alone. She was a very willing participant. And I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it. So don't get mad at me. I didn't actively try and pursue her. It just happened."

"It just happened," Sam repeated. "Were you two just walking to her room and she slipped and fell on your dick and you were like 'hm, well, we're here anyway..."

"Fuck you, Sam. This is the one good thing in my life right now, and you want to twist it into that I did something horrible. I know we were going to wait. I know that. But I don't even know how to explain it. She calms me. It's like she puts the Mark on mute when she's around."

"Are you two together now?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. "No clue. We haven't really had time to talk."

Sam's eyes narrowed and he frowned. 

Dean held his hands up, "Don't look at me like that."

"When this is over, we're going to have a long talk," Sam said. "Until then, we need to get over there and get that damn mark off of you. Then we'll see how you feel. If you're just using her to mute the feeling the Mark puts in you, you won't like what I do to you."

Sam didn't wait for a response, he walked over to the other side of the room where Hermione was taking things out of her bag and setting them up. Dean watched as Sam came right next to her, and turned to look at Dean. While maintaining eye contact with his brother, Sam lifted a hand and put it on Hermione's shoulder. Dean rolled his eyes, not believing that his brother was choosing this moment to become a jealous idiot. He walked over and joined them, just as Hermione was pulling out a small cage.

"What's that?" Dean asked. 

Hermione pulled the cover off the cage and inside was a small grey mouse. "This is what we're going to try and attach the Mark to."

Dean crouched over, getting a closer look at the mouse. "A mouse? We're going to attach it to a mouse?"

Hermione shrugged. "It's the only animal I could think of that is small enough that if it gets murderous tendencies it won't do much harm."

Dean smiled. "Well, I'll give you that. So what do we need to do next?" 

Before Hermione could say anything the door to the restaurant burst open, and in walked Death. 

"What the hell?" Dean exclaimed.

"Or time isn't up," Sam said. "We still have three days."

Death shook his head. "Yes, I'm aware. But I can't let you do this ritual."

"Why not?" Hermione said. "You said yourself that if we bind the mark to someone, then we don't have to worry about the Darkness. We found a loophole, and I know the ritual. We can do this."

Death shook his head. "It's too big a risk. I can't let you do that." He lifted his scythe from where he had been carrying it by his side. "I've come to stop you by any means necessary."

Sam and Dean moved protectively in front of Hermione. 

"You'll have to get through us first," Dean said. 

"Easily," Death said, and with a wave of his hand Dean and Sam went flying through the air, and he continued his slow walk toward Hermione. 

Hermione drew her wand and held it in front of her. 

Death chuckled. "You don't honestly think that your wand will stop me?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Immobulous!" she shouted, but Death just waved the spell away. "Incarcerous," she shouted again, but again Death waved off the spell. She was about to cast again, but Death was before her. He reached out and gripped Hermione by the neck, lifting the scythe up, pressing it just below his hand. 

"It's unfortunate that I'm going to have to kill you. Brightest witch of your age and all." 

Hermione struggled against his grip, but it was of no use. She closed her eyes, and willed herself to be brave. She could feel the sharp edge of the scythe pressing into her, she was sure it was drawing blood. Just as she was sure death was inevitable, the grip left her neck. She looked up to see Dean and Sam both fighting Death. Somehow during the melee Dean had managed to grab the scythe. As Sam and Death were scuffling, Dean moved behind Death, and swung the scythe, stabbing it into Death's back. Death crumbled into dust before their eyes.

"What the fuck!" Sam exclaimed.

"Oh my god!" Hermione yelled. "You killed Death!"

Dean looked down at the scythe in his hands, and the pile of dust where Death had been standing. "Yeah, I guess I did. We better get this ritual done asap."

Hermione turned back to the table where she had everything laid out. She pulled out the vial she had brought back with her from Hogwarts, handing it to Dean. "You need to put three drops of this on your mark."

Dean took hold of the vial, opening it and pulling out the stopper. He very deliberately dropped three drops of the potion on his mark before closing it back up, and handing it to Hermione. She in turn opened it, and put three drops in the bowl of herbs she had sitting on the table, and then three drops on the mouse. She then held up her wand, and closed her eyes. She began chanting, almost singing, in Latin. She was doing it quiet enough that he couldn't quite catch what she was saying. The lights in the building began to flicker, and the windows began to rattle. He looked over at Sam, and Sam was starting to look concerned. Hermione stopped chanting for a second before moving over to Dean, and holding her wand over his arm. She began waving her wand and chanting over his arm. Just when he was starting to wonder if the ritual was working, a bolt of lightning broke through the roof of the building, striking his Mark, and connecting with Hermione's wand. The Mark disappeared off of his arm, but the lightning stayed attached to Hermione's wand. He looked down at his arm and up at Hermione in shock.

She wasn't paying attention to him though, she had her focus on her wand, her hand was shaking, and her forehead thick with sweat. She was struggling to maintain control of the spell. Shit. Out of everything they were concerned about, they never once asked if she would be okay performing the spell. He looked away from Hermione for a second to make eye contact with Sam, but he was staring at Hermione with just as much concern. Hermione started turning back toward the table and the mouse, and just as she was about to bring the lightning bolt into contact with the mouse, transferring the mark, the spell backfired, creating a blinding flash and a loud bang that shook the building.

Once Dean had recovered from the blinding light, he rushed over to Hermione, who lay unconscious on the floor. 

"Is she okay?" Sam asked. 

Dean reached down and moved her hair from her face, and felt for a pulse. "Yeah, she's alive. But I don't know if she's okay, I guess we need to just wait for her to wake up."

"The Mark?" Sam asked. 

Dean held up his right arm. "Gone."

Sam looked over at the mouse. "Think she got it transferred before it went haywire?"

Dean shook his head. "I doubt it."

Sam looked around again. "Well, the world doesn't seem to be ending, so that's a good sign."

"Yeah. But we should get out of here before someone comes and investigates that explosion. Grab the stuff off the table and her wand and put it all back in that bag, I'll grab her."

Sam nodded, picking the wand up off the floor and rushing to the table and putting everything in. Dean scooped Hermione up into his arms and adjusted her against his body. Once Sam had everything they walked out the door. They paused for a second and looked around. 

"Everything seems normal," Dean said. 

Just then, lightning bolts came out of the sky striking the ground all around them. 

"Fuck," Dean said.

"You just had to say something," Sam said. 

"The car," Dean yelled, as black smoke began billowing out of the holes made by the lightning. 

The brothers ran to the car, Sam throwing open the back passenger side door for Dean before running around to the driver's side. Dean, as gently as possible threw Hermione into the back seat and then climbed in himself before slamming the door shut behind them. Sam slid into the driver's seat and cranked the ignition. Dean looked out the back window to see a sea of black smoke coming toward them.

"Drive!" He screamed. 

Sam threw the car into reverse, but the tire fell into a pothole in the worn out parking lot. The brothers could only sit and watch as their car was engulfed in black smoke, with them inside.


	22. Chapter 22

Hermione stirred. She groaned as she tried to open her eyes, but it was an impossible task. Her eyes felt heavy, her head felt like she had been beat by a bludger. She shifted and realized she wasn't on the hard floor of the restaurant, she was somewhere softer. She shifted again. The Impala. She groaned and tried to sit up.

"Hey, take it easy," she heard from the front seat. Dean. 

She tried to sit up again, her head swimming.

"I mean it," Dean said again. "You need to lay back down and just relax. We're on our way back to the bunker. Just rest until we get there."

"What happened?" she croaked out, barely audible.

"Just rest," Dean said again. 

She wanted to protest again, but the words couldn't come out, and that's all she knew.

The next time she awoke, she was in a bed. Her head didn't feel like a jackhammer was drilling inside it anymore, but it still ached. She tried to open her eyes, and was surprised when it actually worked. The room she was in was mostly dark, illuminated by a small lamp in the corner. She looked around and realized she wasn't in her room. She rolled over and noticed all the weapons mounted on the wall. She turned her head and noticed Dean sitting at his desk, reading a book.

"Dean?" she said, her throat dry from lack of use. Her words came out so quiet, she wasn't sure if Dean had heard anything she had said. She was about to try again when he looked up from his book, and swiveled in his chair. 

"Hermione, thank god," he said, standing up and moving toward her. He perched on the side of the bed. "We were starting to get worried that you weren't going to wake up."

"How long was I out?" she asked. 

"Five days," Dean answered. "Cas came and tried to heal you, but he said there was nothing we could do, you would wake up when you were ready. Sam has been coming in here with chicken broth which we had to force into you to make sure you weren't going to starve to death while you were sleeping." He brought his hand up to her face, pushing her hair out of the way, running his hand down her cheek. "Please don't do that again. I don't think I've ever been so worried for someone else. Besides Sam."

Hermione closed her eyes and reveled at the feel of his hand on her cheek. "I'll try," she said. "No promises. It's a dangerous line of work."

"Running a book shop?" Dean asked.

She shook her head. "Keeping you Winchesters alive."

Dean laughed. "True enough. Are you feeling okay?"

She opened her eyes. "My head feels like I've been hit with a bludger, but other than that, I'm just tired. What happened? Did it work?"

"Halfway," Dean said. He brought his arm up to show her. "See, no mark. And no internal, uncontrollable anger. So that part was a success, and I owe you big time."

"But?"

"Something happened. It was like the spell exploded, knocking you out, before you were able to transfer the mark to the mouse."

"Oh no."

"Yeah, and at first everything seemed fine. But then black smoke billowed out of the ground and engulfed the Impala. And then shit got weird. We went into town and everyone was infected by something that made them want to kill, until it killed them. We rescued a baby, only for it to turn out to be fucking evil. Sam managed to cure the town of the evil infection while I was dealing with the baby, and we came here to try and figure out how to stop The Darkness and try to wake you up."

"Where was I the whole time you were running around with a baby and curing infected people?"

"We were at a hospital, so we set you up in there with Cas standing guard once we realized he couldn't heal you."

Hermione nodded. "So the Darkness is on earth now?"

Dean nodded. "Remember fucking evil baby?

Hermione nodded. 

"The Darkness personified. Eats souls."

She closed her eyes and shook her head gently. She felt a tear slip out.

"Hey," Dean said. "What's this for?"

"I'm so sorry," she said, choking on a sob. "It's all my fault. I wasn't powerful enough to control the spell by myself. Bill warned me and said it would be difficult to do on my own, but I waved him off and said I would be fine. I've managed harder. I should have listened to him, and let him come along, and used his help to bind that spell. Instead I was arrogant, and now I've unleashed evil on the world."

Dean sighed. "It's not your fault. We don't blame you. You tried, and you got the mark off of me, and that's all I care about. So evil is unleashed on the world. Who the fuck cares? It's nothing we haven't dealt with before."

Hermione opened her eyes and looked at Dean. He looked so much different than he did before. His face was relaxed. In fact, he looked completely relaxed. There was no tension in him, and he was looking at her with such care and concern, that it was a complete one eighty of what it was like before when he had the Mark. He ran the pad of his thumb down her cheek, wiping away the tears.

"Please don't blame yourself," he said quietly. "We need you to rest, and get better so you can help us stop this bitch before she eats everyone's souls, or whatever her big plan is. We are at a loss, and Sam could really use another brain to help him out, because I'm useless."

Hermione smiled. "I'm sure you're not useless," she said. "You did just fine when we were researching together."

"Well, I was useless while you were in your coma," he said.

"Dean," she started.

"He knows. Sam knows. About the sex."

"Oh," Hermione said, lowering her eyes. "Is he upset?"

"He was. He says I stole you from him. That I won you unfairly."

Hermione shook her head. "I'm not an object or a prize," she bit out as harshly as she could muster.

Dean nodded. "I know that, and deep down he knows that. But he's pretty upset, he's pretty hurt that you chose me over him."

She closed her eyes. "Yeah, I can imagine. Especially," she trailed off.

"Especially what?"

She sighed. "Especially since after I kissed him in my flat, I implied that I would be choosing him."

Dean furrowed his brow. "What changed your mind? Because obviously you changed your mind or else you wouldn't have fucked me. At least, I hope you wouldn't. I mean, if you're just going to play both of us, we're going to have a problem because I'll always choose my brother over a girl."

Hermione shook her head. "I'm not playing you. I don't know what made me change my mind. Logically, I shouldn't have. You were a complete ass to me from day one until just about now. But, I don't know, it was like there was something drawing me to you. It was almost--"

"Irresistible," Dean finished. "Yeah, I felt the same thing. And I told Sam that much. In my head, all I could feel was anger and hatred toward you, but then I had this baser instinct buried deep within me, and that's what I acted on when we kissed. Then we, you know."

Hermione nodded. "So, I'm guessing I'm going to need to go to Sam and try and explain that it's not just you, that it's the both of us."

Dean shrugged. "I think he's pretty much accepted that he's the loser in the love triangle. He's the one who put you in my room."

"Oh," Hermione said. "Well, I still feel like I need to talk to him. Tell him that I didn't mean to lead him on, at the very least."

Dean nodded. "Sure. But when you're better. You've been in a coma for five days. You are not leaving this bed for a while. Unless it's to pee, and then I'll carry you there. No trying to walk for a little while, understand?"

Hermione shook her head. "You're being ridiculous. I can just heal myself with a healing spell and some potions."

Dean shook his head. "No magic. It took us a while but we managed to figure out how to use your fireplace to call your friend Harry, and he brought some magical doctor here. They said you've depleted your magic, and you'll need to spend a while magic free."

Hermione frowned. "Define a while"

"He said a month or two."

"A month or two? Without magic?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's what that magic doctor said."

"But, what about my shop? I was counting on being able to go back and forth and run it. What about being able to floo to London to see the kids? What about my cat?"

"Harry went to your apartment, and he brought your cat here. He is currently in Sam's room, much to Sam's annoyance. The thing just decided Sam was his best friend as soon as he got here. As far as your shop, Harry talked to your temp, and she said she would be able to stay on as long as possible."

"But she's a muggle," Hermione said. "She only manages the muggle books. What if a witch or someone comes in and wants to do business with my rare magical books? What is she going to think?"

"Harry said he's going to send someone there. A Luna? To manage the magical portion until you get better. You don't need to worry. We took care of everything. And Harry said he would bring the kids here to visit you. And that the new one isn't coming for a while, so to tell you to stop worrying about that as well."

Hermione shook her head. "He knows me too well."

"Yeah, and if he wasn't married, I would be feeling a bit jealous right now." 

Hermione frowned. "You would be feeling jealous? Of Harry?"

"Well, yeah, he's a good looking guy, and you two are very close."

"He's my brother, he always has been."

"I know that," Dean said. "I know I don't need to worry about him. But do I need to worry about my own brother?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.

"Do I need to worry about losing you to my brother? Like are you going to change your mind?"

Hermione was quiet as she thought it over. This was a completely different side of Dean than she was used to. She shook her head. "I think I want to give whatever it is between us a shot. Get to know the real you."

"And if for some reason it doesn't work out?"

"I won't move to Sam. That's not fair to either of you. If it doesn't work out between us, then I'll move permanently back to Boston, and we'll all move on."

"So, we're going to see what this is?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah."

Dean smiled. "That's a relief to hear. I was worried you would wake up and be uninterested. Get the hell out of dodge."

She shook her head. "No, I'm interested. But you have to promise me one thing."

"Anything."

"We can't let this, whatever it is, get in our way from defeating whatever the hell The Darkness is."

"Deal."


	23. Chapter 23

The door to Dean's room opened and Hermione looked up from her book with a smile. She had only been awake for a few hours, but she was already starting to get restless. After her talk with Dean she asked him to bring her to use the facilities, and then he left her with a book while going to search for more material for their search on information about the Darkness. He refused to let her get involved, not yet. He wanted her to gain her strength, so he left her with a copy of Pride and Prejudice and the promise he would be quick with his retrieval.

"Oh good, I was starting to go mental," she said, closing her book and turning to the door.

Instead of seeing Dean standing there, she found Sam holding a tray of food. Her smile faltered, but she caught herself. Showing disappointment at the younger Winchester's arrival would only create more tension between the three of them, not lessen it. 

"Sam," she said.

"Hey," he replied. "I, uh, brought you some lunch. I figured you might be hungry."

Hermione smiled, sitting up in bed. "I'm famished. What'd you bring?"

Sam sighed, taking a step into the room toward her. "Well, don't get too excited, it's just grilled cheese and tomato soup."

"That sounds delicious, actually, thank you," she said, as he approached the bed.

He set the tray down on her lap, and took a step back. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two of them, as they tried to figure out what to say or do next.

"So, I think--"

"Sam, I'm so--"

They laughed as they tried to talk over each other, breaking the tension in the room.

"Go ahead, you go first," Sam said, gesturing at her.

Hermione took a deep breath, and looked up at him, trying to make eye contact. "Sam, I'm so sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," Sam started, but Hermione held her hand up stopping him.

"Yes, I do. We said that we would wait until after we took care of Dean's problem before we acted on any feelings there were between the three of us and then--"

"You went and fucked my brother," Sam bit out tersely.

Hermione looked down at the tray in lap. "Yeah, exactly that. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't plan any of this, it just happened."

"Yeah, Dean said pretty much the same thing. That it just happened. That you guys had no control over your actions. That you were drawn to each other," Sam said, bitingly. 

Hermione brought her gaze back up to his. "Well, I wouldn't say that we had no control over our actions, I mean that's a bit contrived. But I do feel this draw to him, it's really hard to explain any other way, really. But I can understand why you would be upset, I did go back on my word. I never meant for you to find out the way you did."

"Yeah, well, fucking in the hallway isn't a great idea if you don't want anyone else to know that you're fucking," Sam said, his face hardening, his voice harsh.

Hermione's face turned red. "Yes, well, that was probably not the best choice I've ever made. This place is so big it makes it feel like you're alone."

"Yeah, well, you weren't, and seeing you and Dean doing that, in the hallway, it was like a punch in the gut. I thought that we had a real chance at something, and we put everything on hold to help Dean. Then all of a sudden you're having sex with Dean, and all I could think was you had been playing me the whole time. Leading me on."

Hermione fervently shook her head. "That's not it at all. Please don't think that."

"Well, what am I supposed to think when you went from kissing me to fucking my brother?"

"Sam, that's not how it happened."

"Really? Because that's how it looks like it happened."

"But it's not. And if you remember correctly, I told you that Dean kissed me before you did. I told you that I had conflicted feelings about everything going on. It's not fair of you to keep thinking that what's between Dean and I just developed out of nowhere. I've been nothing but honest with you about my feelings from the beginning."

Sam sighed, "I know, I get that. But when we talked, we said that when everything was done with the mark, we were going to see what was between us. And what was between you and Dean. And then you would make your decision. I feel like you guys cut me out of the running before I even had a shot."

"You know, making yourself out to be some sort of loser of a contest, isn't a very attractive trait, Sam. And I'm not some object that you can try and win or steal from your brother. I'm a human being, and I have feelings, and I can make my own decisions about who I have a relationship with. I'm sorry if you feel that I led you on. I didn't mean to. At all. I truly do feel something for you. We have a lot in common, and we have amazing chemistry. But there's just a little something more with Dean. Please try and understand."

Sam looked up at the ceiling, running his hand through his hair, trying to control his temper. "Has Dean told you about the connection between him and Amara?"

"Amara?" Hermione asked, confused. "Who's Amara?"

"I'll take that as a no," Sam said. "Amara is the name of the vessel The Darkness is using here on Earth. Ask him about it. And the kiss."

Hermione's face fell, as she felt the air rush out of her body. "What?"

Sam continued. "Dean is not one for commitment. He's more of a love them and leave them type of guy. So when he gets tired of you and moves on to someone else, I want to let you know that I’ll still be there for you. Pick up the pieces.”

"Make your move,” Hermione said, in disgust. “Sam, I don't know what you're trying to do, but I'm not a fan of it."

"I'm just making sure you know what sort of man you've decided to get involved in. You would think after what you went through with your ex that you would want to pick a different type of man."

"That's enough," Hermione bit out. "You're mad. I get that. You're upset that Dean and I snuck around behind your back. I get that, too. But that does not give you permission to treat me like shit. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings, I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you the second I knew I was going to move forward with Dean. But I will not apologize for my feelings. Dean and I are going to see what there is between us, and you need to be okay with it. I'm not going to walk on eggshells around here, and I sure as hell know that neither will Dean. You need to grow up and stop behaving this way, because we have a lot bigger things to worry about than your brother and I shagging."

Sam's nostrils flared, his eyes shining with emotion, but to his credit he didn't say anything. He turned on his heel, swiping his hand, knocking a stack of books to the floor before storming toward the door. As he pushed his way through the door, Dean was coming back, a stack of books in his hands.

Dean watched as his brother shoved past him, and stormed down the hall to his room before slamming the door in his wake. "What's his problem?"

"We had our talk," Hermione said. "He's behaving like a two-year-old who had his favorite toy taken away."

"Well, he'll get over it. Don't worry."

"Yeah, I'm not worried about it. I know he just needs time."

"Exactly. Time heals most wounds, but especially wounded egos. In the meantime, I found these books and I was thinking we could go through them together. See what we can find out about The Darkness."

"Funny," Hermione said. "Sam just told me something about The Darkness that I had no knowledge of, maybe you can help me figure it out."

"Really? What?"

Hermione looked up, tears in her eyes. "When the hell were you going to tell me that you kissed The Darkness?"


	24. Chapter 24

Dean looked like he was a deer caught in the proverbial headlights. Of course Sam would take this opportunity to tell Hermione about the kiss. He didn't even know why he shared that with Sam in the first place. He knew Sam was pissed at both him and Hermione, so he should have known that he would tell her about the kiss at the first chance he had. And of course he would do it in a way that made Dean look like an ass.

Dean sat on the edge of his bed, and looked at Hermione, who didn't look like she wanted to slit his throat, so that was a good sign.

"Remember when I told you that after the ritual failed all of this black smoke came flowing out of the ground and we couldn't get away, the Impala had been stuck in the parking lot?"

Hermione nodded.

"Well, at some point in that chaos I found myself outside of the car, inside the smoke with this woman. She had the Mark of Cain on her collar bone. And then she kissed me, and then I was back in the car. That's it."

Hermione sat up straighter in the bed, and Dean could practically see the wheels turning. "This evil baby, did she have the Mark on her?"

Dean shifted so he was completely facing her. "Yes, as a matter of fact she did. On her collar bone as well."

"Where's this evil baby now?"

"Crowley has her, I'm assuming."

"Crowley?"

"King of Hell."

Hermione nodded. "If The Darkness has the Mark of Cain, do you think maybe we could find a spell..."

"No."

"Dean."

"No. End of story. Hermione, you almost died trying to do the spell that took the mark off of me. There's no way we're going to let you risk your life for us again. We'll figure something else out."

"I just want to help," Hermione said. "I need to help."

"And you will," Dean said. "By helping us with research, by coming with us when we have leads. By casting other spells, or whatever it is you do. But not by doing any crazy ass rituals. We can figure this out. The four of us. And we have some time. Crowley is keeping her in Hell right now, we think."

Hermione leaned back in the bed. "You're right. I was a bit over my head with that ritual. I'm amazing at research though, so I'll help out that way. At least until my magic comes back. And then I want an active role in this. I don't want you to keep me on the sidelines because I'm a girl. Or because we're whatever we are."

Dean moved so that he was lying parallel to Hermione on the bed. He reached out and turned her so that they were laying on the bed facing each other. "I would never sideline you. In my line of work there are a lot of lady hunters. My mom was a hunter. You're too much of an asset to leave home. And whatever we are just makes me trust you that much more out there to have my back. Don't think for one second that we're against having you out there."

Hermione gave a weak smile. "Sam might."

"Sam will get over it. He's going to be fine. And if he cares about you as much as he is acting, he'll come around sooner rather than later. You two are too alike to not get along for long. Trust me. I know my brother."

"Okay," Hermione said. "I still feel bad about how we got outed. I really did plan to break the news to him a little more gently."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure the family is cursed, so welcome to that bit of excitement. We're all still alive, and broken hearts can be healed. We've been through worse."

Hermione gave him a wide smile.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Nothing," Hermione said. "It's just, I think I like this version of you. I think this part of you is what I was being drawn to."

Dean smiled back. "Yeah, I'm feeling a lot more like myself. My brain isn't filled with this red rage anymore. I'm thinking clearer than I had in nearly a year. And I have you to thank for it."

"You're giving me too much credit. I had a lot of help back home."

"But you still did it. You got the mark off of me."

"And released Hell on Earth."

"Meh," Dean said, shrugging. "We've been through worse."

"Worse? Really?" Hermione said. 

"Yeah, like battling with Lucifer and Michael. And I've died and spent some time in Hell. Sam died, spent some time in Hell. So we're all alive right now, so points in the positive right there."

Hermione settled down so that her head was on the pillow. "I think I need to hear these stories."

Dean smiled and tucked a stray curl behind her ear, placing a soft kiss on her lips before settling down on the pillow next to her, and then started talking. 

"Eleven years ago, our dad went on a hunting trip, and didn't come back..."

 

Dean looked at Hermione sleeping soundly on the bed and smiled. He had just gotten to the part where he sold his soul for Sammy's life when she had fallen asleep. He was glad of it, because she was still weak, and he didn't want her over exerting herself too much on her first day awake. He shifted off the bed, trying his best to not disturb her. He looked at her one more time before turning off the overhead light and closing the door behind him. He had a bone to pick with his brother. He stalked through the bunker and found Sam sitting in the war room on this lap top.

"What the hell man?" Dean said without preamble?

"What?" Sam asked, looking up from what he was doing on his computer. 

"What were you doing going in there and riling Hermione up like that? She needs to rest. You know that."

"She deserved to know the truth."

"About Amara? That we kissed in what could have very well been a dream?"

"About what kind of man you are," Sam snapped.

"And what kind of man am I, huh, Sam?"

"The type to fuck a girl and then leave."

"Hello, pot, looking a bit black there."

That shut Sam up, and Dean smiled internally. 

"We're on the road, Sammy. Of course we fuck girls and then leave. Those are the types of girls we meet! We've never really been in a situation to put down roots."

"When have you ever wanted to put down roots? I can't even think of one instance where you've wanted to just stay in one place with one girl. Hermione needed to know that you don't do commitment."

"That's real cold, man," Dean said. "Real cold. Or have you really forgotten about Lisa?"

Sam closed his eyes and cursed to himself. "Dean, I..."

"No," Dean said. "You listen. I like Hermione. A lot. I know that you two had a moment in her apartment and promises were made, but things obviously changed, and I'm sorry that they changed in my favor and not yours, but I'm not going to let you ruin this. Look around," Dean said, gesturing at the bunker. "For once in our lives we are in a position to put down roots. We have a home base. And Hermione knows what we do, and is eager to help. Now, if we could just eighty-six The Darkness, life would be perfect. Hell, if it turns out Hermione can make a pie, I'll have to start thinking I died and went to heaven. So, I need you to suck it up, and do whatever you need to do to get over this. Because we're all going to need to work together here soon. We need to be a team because we don't know what's going to happen."

Silence fell between the brothers.

"You really care for her?" Sam asked. 

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I do. I don't know what it is. I wonder if it's because she's essentially the female version of you, and you're the most important person in my life. I don't know. I just know that I haven't felt like this since Lisa, man. This is some intense shit."

"I know I'm the most important person in your life, but if I asked you to choose. Me or her. What would you do?"

"She would be on the next plane to Boston."

Sam was quiet for a second, contemplating Dean's answer. "Don't break her heart? Okay? I care about her, too. I don't want to see her get hurt."

"I'll try my best. Let's try and not get killed during all of this, okay? I don't want her to have to mourn us."

"Deal. No dying," Sam agreed.

Dean smiled and felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Things weren't going to be better right away, but as time moved forward, things would start to get better, and then the three of them would be a force to be reckoned with. The Darkness wouldn't know what hit it.


	25. Chapter 25

“Tell me about your parents,” Dean said, one night a few weeks after the mark was removed. They were laying in bed, facing each other, after spending the day getting nowhere with their research, as they had been for the last few weeks. 

“What about my parent?” Hermione asked.

Dean shrugged. “Anything really. I don’t think I know anything about them other than the fact that they’re regular people like me. What do they do? Where do they live?”

“Well, they were dentists who owned their own practice. We used to vacation in France and go skiing in the Alps. And currently they’re living in Australia with no recollection of who I am.”

Dean sat up. “What do you mean by that?”

“In my seventh year, before we went on the run from Voldemort, I erased myself from their minds, to them it’s as if I didn’t ever exist. And then I put it in their minds that it was their life long dream to sell the practice and move to Australia, and I gave them new identities. I thought that was the safest thing for them. After the war, Harry, Ron and I traveled to Australia, and tracked them down. Unfortunately, I couldn’t reverse the memory charm, and so we left, and that was the last time I saw my parents.”

Dean reached over and pulled Hermione into his embrace, holding her tight to him. “Well, Glinda, that’s another thing we have in common.”

Hermione twisted around so that she was able to look up at his face. “Your parents are in Australia and don’t know who you are as well?”

Dean chuckled. “No, although, that would be a great alternative. No, my parents are gone. My mom was killed by a demon when I was four, and my dad gave his life to save mine.”

Hermione tightened her arms around Dean’s body. “Oh, Dean, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry.”

Dean shrugged. “It is what it is. At least I have Sammy. And Cas,” Dean paused swallowing, unsure how the next part would go over. “And now you.”

He felt Hermione stiffen in his arms. He didn’t move a muscle or say anything. He just waited. 

“You already consider me family?” Hermione finally spoke up, quietly. 

“Of course,” Dean said. “You stuck your neck out for me, and I was a complete ass to you. You dedicated so much time into researching a solution for the curse on my arm, and you didn’t even know us. We were just some schmucks off the street who just walked into your shop. You almost died for me. You’re fucking amazing. And, I think I’m falling in love with you,” Dean finished quietly. 

Hermione reached up and wiped a tear from her eye. “Wow,” she said, emotion heavy in her voice. 

“You, um,” Dean started. “You don’t have to say anything, but I just wanted you to know where I am, and have all my cards on the table. In my experience, life is short, and there’s no time for doubts.”

Hermione shifted so she was propped up on her elbow, so she could look Dean in the eye. “I agree. Life is short, and with what I’ve experienced with you, I’ve not experienced with anyone else. You and your brother have been amazing. You’ve brought me into your secret hidden bunker, welcomed me into your family, and it’s just been so much more than I expected when I met you. You’re so much more than I expected when I first met you. I never expected to be here, like this with you, after that first meeting when you drew your gun on me because I’m a witch. But, I’ve felt this draw to you since we met. And after getting to know you, the real you these last few weeks,” Hermione paused. “I think I’m falling in love with you, too.”

Dean smiled, his body relaxing knowing that his girl was in the same place as him, emotionally. He had to admit, he was a little nervous. He was not exactly a commitment guy, not since Lisa, and that didn’t exactly end well, but he wasn’t getting any younger. He had always longed for stability, for roots, which is why the bunker appealed to him so much once they found it. He was sure it stemmed from his lack of stability through his childhood, but that was for a shrink to figure out. 

He bent his head down, joining his lips with Hermione’s in a gentle kiss. Hermione brought her arms up pulling him down closer, deepening the kiss. Dean reveled in the kiss. He had been making sure to not take things too far the last few weeks in order to give Hermione time to heal, and holding her close, was just what he needed to feel that connection between them. He could also feel other parts of him getting excited about the closeness and the kissing. He shifted away from her, breaking the kiss.

“I, uh, if we keep going, I don’t think I’ll want to stop,” Dean said.

“Why would we need to stop?” Hermione asked.

“You’re still healing,” Dean said.

Hermione pulled away from him. “Just my magic now. The rest of me is fine. I need this,” she said, as she pulled his shirt she had been sleeping in over her head. 

Dean sucked in his breath at the sight of her bare chest. He reached up and traced the scar that ran from her collar bone to just below her breasts. 

Hermione shook her head. “A story for another time,” she said before laying down next to him.

He didn’t waste any more time before recapturing her lips, his hands smoothing across her body, gently massaging her breasts as he moved his lips down her neck. 

“Dean,” Hermione moaned. “I promise, I won’t break.”

Dean pulled back and smiled at her, before bringing his own shirt over his head and bringing his mouth back down to hers. It didn’t take long for the rest of their clothes to be removed, and Dean found himself slipping inside of Hermione’s tight warmth. The two of them moved together slowly, and Dean had to concentrate as he moved in and out of her wet heat, in order for things to not end before they had really begun. He kissed her, swallowing a moan she was letting out, before pulling back and looking into her cinnamon eyes. She reached up, moving her hand around the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair. In her eyes, he could see the love she felt for him, and it made his heart pound harder in his chest. Unlike their last coupling, before they removed the mark, there was nothing rushed about what they were doing. They both poured their emotions into their actions, letting their bodies speak for them. It didn’t take long before he could feel her tightening around him and he knew she was close. He sped up, smirking as he felt her fall apart around him, before he allowed himself to follow her. Never breaking the intimacy of their eye contact. After a few minutes, he rolled off of her, drawing her into his arms, placing a kiss just below her ear. With his arms wrapped around her tightly, he drifted off to sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Hermione woke up a few hours later, and realized that she was hungry. She looked over at the man sleeping next to her in the bed, and smiled. Skipping dinner was completely worth it. She made sure she moved slowly out of the bed, careful not to wake him. She grabbed the robe she was using off the desk chair, wrapping it around herself, before quietly opening the door, and slipping out. The bunker was quiet, but the light was still on in the war room. As she walked through on her way to the kitchen, she noticed Sam was still sitting at the table on his lap top, a pot of coffee sitting next to him. 

“Finding anything useful?” Hermione asked, announcing her presence. 

Sam looked up, running his hands through his hair. “No. Not only am I continuing to hit dead ends, I’m pretty sure I’ve come full circle and re-reading things we’ve already read before. I don’t know why I keep thinking we wil find anything about The Darkness now that she’s personified as Amara, when we couldn’t find anything about her before.”

Hermione shrugged. “Because you’re like me, and you’re not a quitter.”

Sam sighed. “You’re right on that. How are you feeling? Should you be up?”

It was Hermione’s turn to sigh as she moved to sit in the chair across from Sam. “I wish you and your brother would realize I’m fine. I’m tired of being confined to that bloody room.”

Sam smiled. “Dean’s just worried about you. And so am I. You need to take it easy. You almost died.”

“I know, but I’m physically feeling a lot better. I can move around the bunker at least.”

“Well, I won’t stop you,” Sam said, before turning back to his laptop.

An awkward silence fell between the two. 

“Sam,” Hermione spoke up. “I’m sorry.”

Sam looked up, closing his laptop. “No, you don’t need to apologize. I should be the one apologizing. I acted like a complete jackass.”

“Well, I should have said something as soon as I knew that things with Dean and I were escalating. It wasn’t fair to you.”

“Yeah, that would have been nice, but I don’t think it would have hurt any less. I should have acted like an adult. I shouldn’t have said the things I said to you.”

Hermione gave him a smile. “It’s okay, Sam. I forgive you. I hope that we can be friends.”

Sam returned her smile. “Of course,” he said genuinely. 

“Good,” Hermione said. “Now, I’m going to go raid the kitchen, because I’m famished. Can I get you anything?”

“Moose!” a voice boomed from the catwalk, before Sam could answer.

Hermione and Sam looked up toward the voice. Hermione watched as a short man, dressed in a suit, descended the stairs. She had never sen him before, but the fact that he had a nickname for Sam, meant he must be someone the boys knew.

“Crowley,” Sam bit out. “What are you doing here? I thought you were avoiding us since you changed plans and took off with Amara.”

Hermione sat up a little straighter, recognizing the name of the man. King of Hell. She wished more than ever that her magic were up to par, and that she had her wand with her, to give them another line of defense in case he was here for nefarious reasons.

“That’s why I’m here,” Crowley said as he made his way toward the table. “I—” he cut off, catching sight of Hermione for the first time. “You surprise me, Moose, didn’t peg you as the type to be fucking a witch. You’re more of the killing type.”

“How…?” Hermione started.

“My mother is a natural born witch. I can recognize one when I see one. Plus the whole demon, King of Hell thing.”

“Your mother was a natural witch?” Hermione asked. 

“Is, love, is. She’s still around. Immortal. And a bloody pain in the ass.”

Hermione opened her mouth to ask more questions but was cut off.

“Save your questions for another time. I need to talk to the Winchesters about a rebellious teenager.”

“Amara is a teenager already?” Sam asked, sitting up. “How is that even possible? She was just an infant a couple weeks ago.”

“Every time she sucks out a soul, she ages.”

“How many fucking souls have you let her have?”

“You speak as if I have a choice in this mate. I have no control over her anymore. That’s why I’m here. We need to stop her.”

Sam sighed, standing up from his seat. “We wanted to stop her weeks ago, and you took her to Hell!”

“And now I’m here to admit my mistake and get your help.”

“What do you know about stopping her?”

“Well, nothing really. I was hoping you guys would know. You’re always one step ahead of me and my plans.”

“She’s God’s sister,” Dean said as he came into the room. He was wearing boxers and a t-shirt, but he looked wide awake and determined. 

“Where and when did you discover that information?” Hermione asked, turning to face him. 

“From her.”

“She was here?”

“No, yes, I don’t know. I don’t know how it worked. I was in bed, and then I was with her, somewhere, and then I was back in bed like I had never left. She told me she was God’s sister, who He trapped in the Mark when she wanted to take the reigns in lording over creation. She wanted me to leave you guys, and join her in her crusade to take over the world. I said no, obviously. And then she went into this jealous rage against you,” he gestured toward Hermione. “And said she would find a way to convince me to join her, or I would be sorry.”

“God has a sister, and she’s jealous of me,” Hermione muttered. “Bloody Hell. How is any of this real?”

“We need to find her and stop her,” Sam said.

“But how?” Hermione asked.

“Well, I don’t know about the stopping her part, but I know where she is,” Dean spoke up.

“Where?” Sam asked. 

“When we were talking I noticed a sign on one of the buildings, it was the post office or something. We can find Amara in Hope Springs, Idaho.”


	26. Chapter 26

Hermione sat on the bed in Dean's room digging through her bag. She hadn't expected to be away from home this long, and she was running out of provisions. The fact that she had been unconscious and bed ridden for so long helped a little, but she would either need to ask where the laundry facilities in the bunker were or go home for a few days when they got back.

The door to the room opened. Hermione didn't look up from her task. "Where's my wand?"

"Top drawer. Let me get it for you," Dean said, opening the drawer and pulling out the wand before sitting down on the bed next to Hermione. "Are you sure you're strong enough to go with us? Because you don't need to prove yourself to us. We know that you can kick ass. I don't want you trying too hard, too soon, and making yourself worse."

Hermione set down the bag and turned to Dean. "I'm not one hundred percent, no, but I can't just sit in this bunker and wait for you guys to come back from confronting Amara."

Dean put his arm around her, pulling him close to his body. "I know. And I normally wouldn't be asking you to make absolutely sure you're up for this. But we really don't know what we're up against. If you something happens, and you don't think you can handle being there, I want you to do your magic transportation thing and come back here. Don't try to be the hero. Sam and I are full strength, we can handle ourselves. If you're going to use your magic at all, I want it to be so that you get out."

Hermione nodded against him. "I'm only agreeing with you, because I know my own limitations."

Dean laughed. "I know."

"What are you going to do when we get there? To Amara?"

Dean shrugged. "I have no fucking idea. We have no idea how to kill her. Crowley is being absolutely no help, which isn't surprising since he came to us, he must not know what to do."

Hermione sighed. "So we have nothing to go on?"

"Essentially."

"I wish I had more strength, I would go back to Hogwarts and grab some books so we can at least attempt to do some research before running in blind."

"Sweetheart, we wouldn't be us if we weren't running in blind."

"I know, but we should at least attempt..."

"Hey, no more worrying. We're going to be okay. We'll head to the town, see what kind of mischief Amara is getting into, and get out."

Hermione shifted so that she was facing Dean. "I have to ask. In all this time, have you ever encountered or interacted with God? I mean, Amara is God's sister. Couldn't we just get Him to stop her?"

Dean shook his head. "We've never come into contact with Him. Cas told us ages ago that He abandoned heaven ages ago. We've tried praying to him in the past, but it's not done any good. He never answers. It's all on us."

Hermione shifted, laying back on the bed. "Well, great. That makes me feel so much better. We're going to go after God's sister. Blind. Without any heavenly back up. Where is Cas anyway?"

Dean shifted, laying down beside her. "I don't know. I haven't seen him since he said he was going to heaven for reconnaissance."

Hermione brought her hand down to her belly and rested it there. "I haven't seen him since..."

Dean followed the movement of her hand. When he saw where it rested, realization of what that meant, and what they had done clicked on. "Oh, shit. We've had sex and we didn't... I didn't wrap it. Are we going to... What are the odds that we..."

Hermione laughed. "Relax. While I was at Hogwarts I picked up a pretty potent contraceptive potion from the mediwitch. I took it before I left, and I took another one just now. We'll be good for another couple weeks before I have to take another one. Don't worry. I'm not careless," she said, her words having just a little bit of a bite to them. 

Dean shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that. It's just this life and babies don't really mix. I have so many fucking enemies, and with Amara, she's already so fucking jealous of you. Add you giving me a child, and I don't think she would allow either of you to live."

Hermione shifted so that she was on her side, looking at Dean. "So, kids. Are they something you don't see in your life? Like ever?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. I've never really put any serious thought into it. I mean, I did. Once. When Sam was in the cage I was with a girl, Lisa. She had a kid that I thought of as my own, and we settled into domestic bliss. But that ended when Sam came back, and then Cas had to erase their memories of me because they were in danger. Constantly. And since then, I just haven't thought of anything permanent. There hasn't really been anyone in my life that I've..." he paused and took a breath. "Well, let me just say, now that you're in the picture and we have the bunker, I just, I don't know. I don't want to close any doors."

Hermione reached over, touching her hand to his cheek. Rubbing her thumb on his cheekbone, she leaned forward and placed a small kiss on his nose before placing her forehead against his. "You don't need to make any decisions right now. Or even anytime soon. Just knowing there's a possibility is good enough for me. Because for me..."

"Yeah, I know."

Hermione closed her eyes, reveling in the feel of his closeness. Letting his admission wash over her. Knowing that the man she was falling in love with was on the same page as her, kind of, was a relief. She didn't want to have to make a decision this young in their relationship about whether or not to continue because they were on separate pages completely. The fact that kids could be a possibility was good enough for her right now. 

"I'm scared about what we're going to encounter when we get to Idaho," Hermione whispered, her eyes still closed. "I faced a madman, and was tortured, but the thought of confronting Amara terrifies me."

She felt Dean's arms wrap around her body, and pull her tightly against him. His lips pressed into her forehead, and she held back a terrified sob. 

"It's going to be okay. We've already dealt with some of the worst she can dole out. We'll be going in with Crowley, and he's got some strange father/daughter vibe going on with her, and that will surely help us out. And you can poof out when things get dicey."

"How can you not be terrified?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we've survived some crazy shit over the years. That this just seems to be another in a long line of baddies that we will inevitably defeat. When you've spent time in Hell, you tend to be able to deal with horrible shit as it comes."

"I'm so out of practice dealing with life or death situations."

"Stick with me, Glinda. We'll get you back up to snuff in no time."

Hermione laughed. "I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I quite enjoyed my quiet life running a bookshop in Boston."

She felt Dean stiffen against her. "You know, you don't have to stay with us. You don't have to hunt. Say the word, and we'll help you move back to Boston. You can have your quiet life back. No judgement."

"And leave you? That would be impossible," Hermione whispered into his ear. 

Dean pulled back and looked at her in the eyes. Seeing that she was absolutely sincere in her declaration, he leaned forward, re-closing the gap between them, capturing her lips in his. 

The kiss was full of emotion, both of them trying to communicate their feelings for each other in that one kiss. When they pulled apart, Hermione couldn't help but be overwhelmed with every feeling imaginable, causing a tightness in her chest. 

"I love you," she whispered, unable to contain herself any longer. 

"I love you, too," Dean answered back, with no hesitation. "I love you so much it hurts."

Hermione wrapped her arms tightly around him, pulling him as close as she could against herself. "Please don't do anything stupid in Idaho. Please. No self sacrifice."

"No self sacrifice. Not this time," Dean said. "I have too damn much to live for right now. We need to survive this so that I can put a baby in you some day, right?" he joked, breaking the tension. "I mean, that's why Cas fixed you right? So we could make little Dean and Hermione hybrids?"

Hermione laughed. "Who knows why he did it. Maybe it was just as a big fuck you to Ronald. I mean Cas really didn't like Ron."

Dean laughed right along with her. "No he did not. I haven't seen Cas just go up and punch a poor human, like ever."

Hermione sighed. "Oh, Merlin, I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I'm pretty sure something is still bruised inside me, because it hurts to laugh."

Dean put on a serious face. "Are you serious? Where does it hurt?"

"Just my belly, I'm sure it's fine."

Dean shook his head. "I'm sure it's not. I think we need to check out what's wrong with you. Make sure you're not permanently injured." Dean leaned up on his arms, balancing himself over Hermione. He lifted up the hem of her shirt, looking at her belly intently. He screwed up his eyes and frowned. 

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, trying to sit up and get a look. 

"Oh this is not good at all, not good at all," Dean muttered, shaking his head. 

"What?" Hermione asked again.

But Dean didn't answer, he just bent down and blew a raspberry on her belly. 

Hermione squealed. "Fuck you," she said through laughs. 

"Mmm," he murmured. "I would not be against that."

Hermione giggled, reaching down, pulling him up to her mouth, capturing it in another searing kiss. Dean settled himself in between her legs, wrapping his arms around her bringing her close. She sighed as he pressed his erection into her center. She reached up, putting her hands on his shoulders under his unbuttoned flannel shirt, pushing it off of his shoulders. Once free of his over shirt, Dean brought his hands up, wrapping them in her hair. He pressed himself into her again, and Hermione couldn't help but remember that first night together in the hotel, and how far they've come from then. She could feel his hands moving down her body, reaching the hem of her shirt. She moaned as she felt his hand come up under the shirt, and up her belly to her breasts. She pushed her chest out as his hand cupped her breast through her bra. Dean broke away from her lips and began placing kisses down her neck, all the while continually massaging her breast and undulating into her. 

"Dean," she moaned.

"Oh, Hermione, I can get used to this," he muttered as he pulled back a bit, taking her shirt up and over her head as he did. "Having you in my bed every night." He brought his mouth down on one of her still clothed breasts, lightly nipping at her nipple. "Fucking you in the back seat of the Impala." His hands trailed down to the button of her jeans, nearly ripping it apart trying to get the button and fly down. 

"For fuck's sake Squirrel, other people sit in that back seat. Please don't fuck anyone in it."

Hermione screamed and reached for something to cover up with as Dean threw his button down at her. 

"What the fuck, Crowley? Have you ever heard of knocking?!" Dean exclaimed, trying his best to both shield Hermione and hide his erection from the King of Hell.

"Tried that. No one was answering, so I just helped myself. Nice tits by the way," Crowley said, looking around Dean at Hermione. "If you ever get tired of fucking a non magical being, I would love to show you how a demon does it." 

"Gross," Hermione said from her place behind Dean.

"What do you want, Crowley?"

"Moose sent me in here to get you. It's time to hit the road." 

And without saying anything further, Crowley poofed himself out of the room, leaving Hermione and Dean half undressed and one hundred percent frustrated.


	27. Chapter 27

Everything that could have gone wrong on the mission, did. Amara was ready for them. Whatever toxin it was that she had released in the town she was born in, was doubled in strength or something. Whatever Sam had tried to do to get rid of it, failed. Just when they thought the end was near, that they were going to be infected, Dean screaming at Hermione to get the hell out of there, the town was cleared out, and the man they were currently staring at in the bunker was there. 

"Who are you, again?"

"I'm, uh, I'm God. But please, call me Chuck."

Hermione just shook her head. "I, um, I don't really understand what's going on. One minute we're in Idaho, now we're home, but it didn't feel anything like apparation. What about the Impala? Is that still in Idaho?"

Chuck laughed. "No, I brought that too. It's in the garage. I know this is a lot to take in."

"Why now?" Dean asked. "Why all of a sudden are you helping us out? We've prayed to you what must be hundreds of times, and nothing. Now? Now you show up?"

"I was trying to not interfere, but Metatron..."

"Metatron?! Metatron?!"

"Dean, calm down," Sam said from his place beside him. 

"I'm not going to fucking calm down. Chuck here's sister has been going on a soul stealing rampage, and he's done nothing to stop it. And when fucking Metatron goes to him, that's what convinces him to come out of where ever the fuck he's been hiding and help us?"

"Look, I know. I suck. But I'm here now. So, can we talk about what we're going to do to stop Amara?" Chuck said.

"You know how to stop her?" Hermione asked from her spot on the other side of Dean.

"Yeah, but it's not going to be easy, and you're not going to like what we need to do. But it involves Dean."

Dean sat up straight. "Me? Why me?"

"Because you had the Mark. And that Mark has tied you to her, for better or worse. So, it's gotta be you. She trusts you."

"What exactly is he going to do?" Hermione asked. 

"I'm going to have to implant the mechanism to trap her back into her box inside of Dean. He'll need to get close to her, and then detonate it."

"No," Hermione and Sam said at the same time. 

"There has to be another way," Sam said. "That sounds like it'll kill him."

"It may or may not, I can't be absolutely sure. But what I'm absolutely certain of is that if we don't do this, Amara is only going to get stronger and more people are going to die," Chuck said.

"But you're God, you're her brother! Can't you do it yourself?" Hermione asked. 

Chuck shook his head. "No, I'm the one who trapped her in the first place. She won't trust me to come within ten feet of her. No, it has to be Dean."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest again, but was interrupted by Dean. 

"I'll do it."

"What?" Hermione exclaimed, turning toward Dean. "No self sacrifice! That's what we had agreed upon."

"Look," he said turning to Hermione. "This isn't self sacrifice. I'm confident I'm going to come out of this alive."

"You don't know that. Fucking Chuck doesn't even know that!"

"I do know that. I have complete confidence in this plan. I'll go, I'll trap Amara. And then I'll be home before you know it. And we can finally fuck in the back of the Impala, okay Glinda?"

Hermione shook her head, her curls bouncing on either side of her face. "I'll tell you what, if you come home to me, I will have sex in your damn car. Okay? But you have to make sure you come home to me, okay?"

"Promise," Dean said before turning back to the other people in the room. "So what do we do now?"

OoO

Hermione followed Sam and Castiel up to the front door of the bunker. She paused before reaching the door, closing her eyes against the tears that threatened to fall. They had just left Dean so he could go confront Amara on his own. While it didn't seem like he was saying goodbye, it really felt like he was saying goodbye. With all the talk about no self-sacrifice, he sure as hell seemed like he was sacrificing himself for the greater good, and it hurt. It hurt so much. 

She was startled out of her reverie by a hand coming down on her shoulder. She looked up into the caring face of Sam. She just about lost it as Sam brought her into his arms. 

"Hey, he'll be fine. He says he'll be fine, he'll be fine. We need to trust him. He'll be okay. We have to have faith."

Hermione nodded against his chest, drawing in deep breaths to stave off the tears.

"Good, now let's go in and try to wait for him to return with minimal worrying, alright?"

Hermione pulled back away from Sam and nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Let's go in. I think I need a drink."

Sam smiled. "We definitely can make that happen. Let's go in."

Sam moved to the door and started unlocking it. While they waited, Cas moved over to where she stood. 

"I agree with Sam. Things will work out the way they should."

"Thanks, Cas."

"Are you and Dean going to utilize your new found fertility?"

Sam opened the door and the three of them moved into the room. But before Hermione could respond to Castiel's very personal question, there was a bright light in the room, and Castiel was gone.

"What the fuck was that?" Hermione screamed, flicking her wrist so that her wand dropped from the holster on her arm into her hand. 

"Angel banishing sigil," Sam said, pulling his gun.

"Who's here?" Hermione called out.

Sam and Hermione ran down the stairs into the main part of the war room.

"Hello, Sam Winchester," a British woman's voice said, from over by the wall. They turned to look, and a blond woman was standing there, one hand still on the sigil, the other brandishing a gun. 

"Who are you?" Sam demanded.

"Doesn't matter," the woman said, taking her hand off the wall, and aiming the gun right at Sam. 

Hermione watched as the woman aimed her gun at Sam, and moved to pull the trigger. Acting on pure instinct, Hermione leapt into action.

"Protego!" she shouted forming a shielding charm around both she and Sam. 

The bullet from the woman's gun bounced off the shield. The woman looked down at the gun in shock and back at the two of them.

"Who the fuck are you? None of our intel mentioned a fucking witch!"

"Who are you? That's the more important question," Sam asked. "And how did you get into the bunker?"

"Our bunker, you mean. You're the ones trespassing, when you think about it."

"What?" Sam asked. 

"Doesn't matter. Put the wand down," the woman said, swinging her aim back toward Hermione. 

"Put down your gun," Hermione countered.

The woman rolled her eyes, and just cocked the gun instead. 

Hermione briefly dropped the shield before pointing her wand at the intruder. "Expelliarmus!" she shouted, smiling as the gun was wrenched out of the woman's hands and into hers. She turned to Sam, handing him the gun, which he promptly placed on the table beside him, never taking his gun off of her. 

"I'll ask you again," Sam repeated. "Who are you?"

The woman just smirked at the two of them. "Oh, how naive you are."

Before either Sam or Hermione had time to react, the woman reached behind her, pulling out another pistol. Hermione tried to pull up another shielding charm, but since her magic still wasn't one hundred percent, and she used quite a bit in the last few minutes, the charm didn't come out as quickly as she anticipated. The sound of two shots from the gun echoed through the bunker as she felt a sharp pain tear through her shoulder before she collapsed to the ground, hitting her head on the table as she went down. Just before she blacked out, she saw Sam fall to the ground next to her, and then she knew nothing.


	28. Chapter 28

Dean walked up to the front entrance of the bunker and frowned. The door was ajar. He turned back and looked at his mom, who was still looking around like she didn't know what was going on. He didn't blame her. The only thing that was familiar to her about this world so far had been the Impala. She was looking at the door, and then she looked back at Dean.

"I'm guessing you guys don't normally leave the door open."

"No, we do not," Dean muttered, pulling his gun out. "Stay behind me. You're not armed, I don't want you to be caught by surprise."

Dean nudged the door to the bunker open wider with his gun before stepping in. The place was eerily quiet. And it was weird that no one was coming out to greet him. Especially Hermione. He was sure she would be sitting in one of those insanely uncomfortable seats in the war room waiting for him to come back...or not. He moved further into the room, and as he stood on the balcony, looking down, he noticed a body strewn across the floor by the table, and a small stream of blood on the floor. It didn't take him long to recognize who it was, and he was pressing the gun into his mom's hands and running the rest of the way down to where the body lay. 

"Hermione!" he shouted as he approached, sliding to a stop in front of her. He knelt down, pressing his fingers to her neck, breathing a sigh of relief when he felt her pulse there. He turned around, and noticed his mom had joined him, staring at the girl on the ground.

"Who's that?" she asked. 

"My girlfriend," Dean answered. "Can you, um, stay with her for a minute? I don't want her to be alone."

Mary nodded, and that was good enough for him. He turned and ran back into the the back part of the bunker where Hermione's original room had been when she first came to stay with them. He shoved the door open and ran to the fireplace. He reached into the pot that sat on the shelf and threw it into the fire, just like Harry had shown him a few weeks ago. 

"Potter Residence," he shouted into the hearth, feeling like a complete idiot. In seconds the fireplace lit up green and a face appeared. He realized it had to be Harry's wife.

"Dean? What's wrong? Where's Hermione?" she asked. 

"She's been shot," Dean said. "I just came home and she's on the floor, and there's a lot of blood..."

"Move," Potter's wife said. "I'm coming through."

Dean took a step back and watched as a very pregnant red head walked out of his fireplace a few seconds later. 

"Where is she?"

"She's this way."

Dean led the way back through the bunker into the the command center to where Hermione and his mom were. Harry's wife rushed over to where Hermione was lying and knelt down. She pulled out her wand and started waving it over Hermione, muttering. 

Mary turned toward Dean, eyes wide. "What the--"

"Mom, not now," Dean said, not removing his eyes from the two witches on the ground. 

"But she--"

"Mom, please, not now. I'll explain everything later. Right now I need to make sure Hermione is all right, and then figure out where the hell Sam and Cas are."

The red head stopped waving her wand, and then reached for the bag that was still strapped to her body. She opened it, shoved her wand in, said some more weird shit, and pulled out two vials. The first, she unscrewed and poured into Hermione's mouth, and the second she unscrewed and put a few drops onto Hermione's shoulder. Once she was finished she stood up and turned toward Dean. 

"Do you mind if I..." she gestured toward the chairs. Dean shook his head, and she sat down. "Sorry, I'm at the point of my pregnancy where chairs are my friend."

"How is she?" Dean asked. 

"She'll be fine," the red head answered. "She lost some blood, so I gave her a blood replenishing potion. I was able to vanish the bullet out of her and close the wound with some dittany. She has a wicked concussion, so that's why she's still out on the floor. It would probably be a good idea to move her to a bed, and have her be comfortable for when she wakes up. She'll know which potions from her stores to use to fix the headache she's going to have when she wakes up. She's going to be fine. You can relax."

Dean let out the breath he was holding. "Thank you so much. I don't even know your name."

"I'm Ginny," she said. "I'm married to Harry, obviously, and Hermione is not only my best friend, she also used to be my sister-in-law."

Dean's eyes widened in recognition. He must be really out of it, the red hair should have given it away. "You're sisters with the evil ex."

"Yep, unfortunately." 

Dean ran his hands down his face. It had been a long night. He wasn't even entirely sure what the hell happened with Amara. His mom was back from the dead, miraculously, and very confused. He came home to find his brother and friend missing and his girlfriend shot on the floor. He needed to go to bed. 

"Well, Ginny, it's nice to meet you. Your husband is a great guy. He really helped out after..." he trailed off, remembering that it was just a few short weeks ago they were removing the mark from his arm. Shit. Things really needed to fucking slow down around here. 

"It's nice to finally meet you as well. Harry has had nothing but good things to say about you. I do feel the need to apologize for my brother again. He's such a prat."

"Don't worry about it. You don't need to apologize at all. As long as I don't ever see him again, we're good."

Ginny smiled, rubbing her hand over her belly. "Well, I don't think he'll ever come here again, so you don't need to worry about it. If you come to London, on the other hand, I can't make any promises. He is family."

"London? Oh no no no. Yeah, you don't have to worry about that. Going to London involves air travel, and I don't travel in boxes that fly. That is just not something I do. So, yeah, no need to worry about what will happen if I'm in London."

"But Hermione's family is in London. Don't you want to come and meet everyone?"

Dean frowned. "I thought her parents had no memory and were in Australia?"

Ginny smiled sadly, "They are, that's why we've adopted her. We're her family. And we don't like bringing the boys through the floo too much. And with this one on the way," she rubbed her belly again, "we would really love to have you both over for holidays. And I mean, Hermione is a witch. And the magical community makes so many adjustments for muggles who marry a wizard or witch. You would be able to travel via the floo or international portkey. There really is no reason to think that you'll be relegated to muggle means of travel."

"M-m-marry?" Dean stuttered out. "Look, I mean I have a lot of strong feelings for Hermione. But, I mean we've only been whatever we are for a few weeks, it's a little soon to be talking about things like marriage."

Ginny laughed at the man's discomfort. "I know. I was just saying hypothetically if that were something that would come about, we could make things work. You seem like a really great guy, Dean. And you seem like you care about Hermione a lot. Just, keep these things in mind while your relationship progresses. Hermione is our sister, and our kids' godmother. She's going to be coming to visit often. It would be a shame that we are robbed of our chance to get to know you better due to some unfounded fears."

Dean looked at the red headed woman sitting in the middle of the room. How was it that just within the last few months he went from just having Sam to being invited into a family of Chuck knew how many. It was a little overwhelming when you added in the fact that his mom was back from the dead. Oh shit. 

"Oh, Mom," Dean turned toward where his mom was still standing and staring down at Hermione. She didn't respond. "Mary," Dean said again, his voice cracking. Knowing his mom was back, but she didn't know who he was hurt. It hurt bad. 

Mary looked up at him. "Yes?"

"Mary, this is Ginny Potter, she's Hermione's sister-in-law. I'm sure you'll meet Harry at some point. Ginny, this is my mom, Mary."

Ginny reached her hand out to Mary. "It's nice to meet you, Mary."

Mary took her hand and gave it a quick shake before she shrunk back into herself. "It's nice to meet you, too. What are you?"

Dean was about to protest, but Ginny just laughed.

"I'm a witch. Same as Hermione."

Mary whipped her head around to look at Dean. "A witch?! You're fraternizing with a witch?!"

"Mom it's not the kind of witch that you're thinking of. They were born witches. No deals with any demons. They're what Sam and I like to call "Good Witches." Like Glinda!"

"What's a Glinda?" Ginny asked. 

"The Good Witch from Wizard of Oz," Dean explained. 

"What's Wizard of Oz?"

Dean sighed. "Fucking wizards. Look, we'll find a copy and when that baby comes you all come over here, and we'll have a big movie night, because I can't stand the thought of your children growing up not knowing the Wizard of Oz. It's a classic."

Ginny laughed "Sounds like a deal."

"A good witch? I've never heard of anything like that before."

"Well, mom, that's because they tend to keep themselves away from non-magical people. Some kind of secrecy pact or whatever."

"If they keep themselves secret, why are there two of them in your home?"

"Well..." Dean started. He wasn't quite sure where to start explaining everything that's been going on.

"Your sons know how to find trouble, and they managed to find me and drag me into it," a voice came from the floor. 

Dean pushed his mother out of the way, and knelt down next to Hermione. "Hey, you're awake," he said, reaching out and helping her sit up.

"Yeah, but I feel like I've been run over by a herd of hippogriffs. What happened?"

"You need to tell me that, sweetheart. We found you here, on the ground in a puddle of blood, alone. Where are Sam and Cas?" Dean explained as he helped her off the floor and into a chair next to Ginny. He hovered, running a hand through her hair. 

"Um, we got back to the bunker after we left you, and there was a bright light. And Cas was gone. There was a woman, British, with a gun. She tried to shoot us, but I was able to block it with a shield charm, and I disarmed her. But she had another gun, and I tried to put another shield up, but my magic is still not up to par, and it wasn't fast enough. There were two shots, and I felt this blinding pain,a nd I think I hit my head as I fell to the floor. After that, nothing until now."

"Where's Sam?" Dean asked. 

She shook her head. "I don't know. I just remember him being here right next to me. And then I think I saw him fall, too? I don't know. I'm so sorry, Dean," Hermione started crying. "I tried to save him, and protect him, but I was too weak. You were right, I wasn't ready to be out in the field, and now I've failed your brother and my friend."

"Hey," Dean said gently. "One, you weren't out in the field, not technically. If you were here when that bitch got here, alone? I'm sure things would have been much worse. Because then she would have caught you completely unaware and unprepared, because you wouldn't have even had your wand on you. Two, you did protect him. You stopped the first bullet. And that's why I fucking love you. You tried. You tried your damnedest. And that's what matters. You were fucking shot, Hermione. If I hadn't have come when I did..." he trailed off when he could feel the emotion welling up in his chest. "What matters is that you're fine, and we're going to find the bitch who did this to you, and took Sam, and waste her."

Silence fell in the bunker as they let Dean's words absorb. But Dean wasn't even exaggerating. He was out for blood. As soon as he found Sam, that's it. He was going to kill whoever came in here to try and destroy his family. 

"Okay, well, Hermione, I'm glad you're doing well, and you're awake, but I better get back home before I give Harry an aneurism."

"Oh, Ginny, thank you so much for coming. I'm assuming Dean called you? Where are the boys?"

"I was having tea with mum when Dean's panicked floo call came through, so I left the boys with her and came through. But this close to my due date, and Harry will have a fit if I'm gone too long. He won't even let me go into Diagon Alley for long by myself. He's started sending Kreacher on all our errands. It's so bloody tiresome. This baby needs to come out of me soon or I'll go mad with cabin fever."

Everyone laughed as Ginny stood up, giving Hermione a hug. "You be careful, love, okay? I don't want any more of these visits. You rest and get your magic up to snuff and then give these people hell for me, okay?"

Hermione nodded. "Definitely. You have Harry or your mum floo call me the second my niece is born, yeah?"

Ginny laughed. "You're so certain I'm growing a girl this time."

"Well, I've met your boys. You need a girl to balance them out."

"I really do," Ginny laughed. "It was nice to meet you, Dean, and you as well, Mary. Don't be strangers."

Ginny walked out of the room, leaving Dean, Hermione and Mary.

Hermione turned and looked at Mary. "And, I'm sorry, I'm pretty sure from what I heard, you're Dean's mum? I thought you were dead?"

"She was," Dean said. 

"Then why..."

"Well, it's a funny thing, Amara gave her to me as a thank you for everything I did to bring her and Chuck back together."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, I know, I don't understand it either. It's just something that's happened. And we're all going to need to adjust to this new thing. Now, what are we going to do about Sam?"

"I know how to find him," Hermione said. 

"You do?"

"I can do a tracking spell."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's track him and waste the bitch that took him."


End file.
